CD of The Week

Lightning Boltis the first Pearl Jam album in four years - the longest amount of time between any two albums they've put out in their career. The time off has given the band an opportunity to do some other projects, as they have been known to do in between albums, as well as time to celebrate their 20th anniversary of being a band. However, it also has seemed to revitalize and loosen up the band.

On their tenth full length album, Pearl Jam sound more relaxed and exploratory then they have been in a few records. They cover a lot of different sonic ground on this one, trying a number of new things as well as making some variations to things the veteran rockers may have done before. There is a lot of the album that sounds familiar, and it starts off like the last few albums have - with three high energy and fast paced songs to open things up.

Opener “Getaway” offers up a punk inspired poppy riff that’s quite catchy and a lot of fun. First single “Mind Your Manners,” which everyone should have heard by now, shares some familiar ground with their shorter punk-rock songs on other albums but takes it just a little bit further on the punk side than they have gone before. The album continues with “My Father’s Son” a dark and bass-heavy, almost typical PJ rocker. After the first three songs is when the album really takes off in a bunch of different directions. ‘Sirens” shows the band entering, dare we say, power-ballad territory while still sounding distinctively like Pearl Jam. Title track “Lightning Bolt” sounds like a logical extension of the pop-rock anthemic songs that sometimes overwhelmed Backspacer, but feels more welcome here. When the album hits about its midpoint we reach “Pendulum,” which finds the band exploring their dark and moody side in a new way we really haven't heard before. The rest of the album finds Pearl Jam somehow sounding like themselves while simultaneously nodding toward other artists. “Swallowed Whole”puts the PJ stamp on the more jangly sounds that were the bread and butter of R.E.M.’s early work. “Let the Records Play” is a really groove heavy blues number which shares a lot of sonic ground with bands like The Black Keys. “Sleeping by Myself,” which originally appeared on Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs album, is given the full band treatment and transformed pretty well into something that sounds almost like country. The highlight of the second half of the album is the trippy sounding “Yellow Moon,” which features a great solo from Mike McCready.

Overall, the album shows Pearl Jam in a more loose and contented mood, not afraid to try some new things. As has always been the case with Pearl Jam, their biggest strengths come in their live shows, where the songs take on a new life of their own. You can catch the band at its two shows at the Wells Fargo Center on October 21st and 22nd.