I like the new song enough to get me exited about the new album. I like Matt´s drumming and the choice they made with the chorus and bridge. Its a cool song.

The lyrics are poor tough.

Production issues aside, I personally thought that S/T was a massive return to form. But it hasn't ushered in a new golden era for the band.

Backspacer I appreciated as an interesting change of pace, though it ranks as their worst studio album for me.

Lightning Bolt suffers from being the first PJ album to sound like it could have been recorded in the same sessions as its predecessor. It's slightly better than Backspacer, but in Future Days and Sleeping By Myself it features the first output by the band that I was genuinely embarrassed by.

I'm liking CDM a lot -but I still can't say I'm particularly optimistic about album 11. But if there are 4/5 strong tracks on it, and nothing that embarrasses the band further, that'll count as a pass from me.

Trump lingers so large in this moment that an even more generalized set of lyrics (more generic protest) would have worked better. The lyrics would date less, and the target would be no less obvious.

I love Sleeping By Myself. My third favorite song on that album. They've really got nothing else like it, and it's a surprising approach to the subject matter.

SBM is one of the highlights of a particularly shitty album.

Ed did.

The whole idea of SBM on a PJ album just pisses me off.

As long as you're not constipated, here here.

I'm posting just to say that I've read this entire thread only to see that the 11th album thread is now up to 171 pages. Good analysis and back and forth. Not much more to add other than I think that MYM achieved what this song set out to do in a much more meaningful and effective way.

I'll be interested to see if the album is LB version 2.0 in tone/structure.

Yep. Shoulda been a Xmas single.

I think it may be my very least favourite Pearl Jam studio recording.

Team SBM.

I thought the new track was the xmas single to begin with!

I think they mean sleeping my myself

I love the Ukulele Songs original. Full-band version takes a simple lament and covers it in layers of cheese. In my opinion, of course. Looks like it's fairly popular on this board.

I got the opposite feeling of it's popularity here.

It's fine that it exists but it shouldn't have been on a PJ album.

why shouldn't it have been on a pearl jam album as opposed to a song like Around the Bend, for instance? Or Thin Air.

On the flip-side of this "Sleeping By Myself shouldn't have been on a PJ album" discussion, I've always felt that if "Guaranteed" was a Pearl Jam song, it would have been a huge hit and pretty famous song. I wish "Just Breathe" was the Eddie solo song and "Guaranteed" was a Pearl Jam song...even if he played it solo like he does "Soon Forget"

It's happening. I let Can't Deny Me roll right into Lightning Bolt, and that album sounded sooo much better in comparison.

The first part of the chorus reminds me of Kokomo.