Just a Girl vs. Lightning Bolt vs. WMA

WMA by process of elimination.

Lightning bolt, easily. Clunky start, but once it hits that first set of double mini solos it becomes one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs.

Just a girl is a somewhat forgettable song in an era of unforgettable ones

It’s cool how ahead of its time (lyrically) WMA was for a band like this. And it sounds good, still, but it is two minutes too long. An example of one of a minor song elevated by a major performance, which is 40% of VS.

WMA is straight up one of my very favourite Pearl jam songs

WMA

Never enjoyed Lightning Bolt, not even live. WMA is perfect!

WMA lending its strength toward track 6 being the best track across the studio albums.

WMA no contest

Just A Girl is interesting. Lightning Bolt is fart noise. WMA is glorious.

I can get behind this

WMA for the win. The other 2 aren't welcome in my life.

Many Ten era songs are cut from a similar cloth, so those that stand out do so based on some combination of strong performances, good writing, or straight up being different. "Just a Girl" really doesn't do any of those things, so it ends up being a middling song among much better ones. "Lightning Bolt" is a song that thinks it's in the big leagues, but is actually the sound of a band going through the motions in the least inspired and least inspiring period of their career. "WMA" is a particularly special song because it's not only quite good, but it also demonstrates the breadth of Pearl Jam's stylistic tendencies even at such an early stage in their career. Before track 6, Vs. had already taken a few swerves for a hard rock band on their second album, and "WMA" was the biggest swerve of all. That's a big part of what made Pearl Jam special to me in a way that their peers weren't. "WMA" it is, quite handily.

Just a Girl has never won a match (Despite once going up against Gone...)

Lightning Bolt's best performance was 2018's top 32, but otherwise it tends to be a second round knockout.

WMA has only managed one top 32 game, in the 2019 live tournament.

Giving some love to Lightning Bolt though i think WMA is better.

L Bolt is fun as hell to play on guitar. Great Mike Solo and the guitar parts are quick and fierce and fun to play.

losing that studio solo was a crime. I think Mike’s work is slightly hit or miss on lbolt but he almost never goes wrong with a climactic closing solo (and they were great live). and his earlier lbolt solo and mym work are album highlights

Just A Girl, hope to hear it live one day.