Alright guys, Lightning Bolt, you know what to do...

[harmless]

LB was never going to be my favourite song on this, but it's pretty good. It gets really good halfway through.

[PHATJ]

This is still incredibly difficult for me. I've listened to LB a lot over the last few days, but I still feel just barely familiar with its subtleties and intricacies. I really enjoy most of the songs and differentiating which I like slightly better than the next is a great problem to have. But nonetheless, it doesn't make ranking it out an easy task. I am sure there will be some (if not many) changes to my list over the coming weeks and months.

01. Lightning Bolt 5/5 - I loved it from first listen (Wrigley) and it just got better (much better) upon hearing the album cut.
02. Yellow Moon 5/5 - This just gives me "that" feeling. I love Ed's voice, Mike's guitar, and just the entire feel of this song.
03. Pendulum 4.5/5 - Beautiful and dark. This is exactly the kind of thing PJ should be doing a lot more of and perfecting.
04. Getaway 4.25/5 - Best opener since Yield. This is PJ hitting an up-tempo track right on the nose.
-------------------------------------------
05. Infallible 4/5 - I love the verses. Choruses hold it back just a bit. Wish it was just a tad heavier/darker in overall feel.
06. Mind Your Manners 4/5 - Obvious first single. This is about as good as a "punk" song as modern PJ can do.
07. Sirens 4/5 - As power ballads go, this is very well done. As a father of three, I find the lyrics moving and heartfelt.
-------------------------------------------
08. Let the Records Play 3.5/5 - Despite the consensus dislike, I really enjoy LtRP. Lyrically dark, musically enjoyable. Great solo's.
09. My Father's Son 3.25/5 - I'm still working on figuring MFS out. The last verse is fantastic, a pissed Ed is a good Ed.
10. Swallowed Whole 3/5 - The repetitive lyric at the end of the verse grates on me. From bridge to end this is very good.
-------------------------------------------
11. Sleeping By Myself 2.25/5 - I didn't care about SBM when it was on Uke songs, and I still don't. It's pretty but pointless.
-------------------------------------------
12. Future Days 1.5/5 - I HATED this at Wrigley. As in "all time bad" type hate. It's not that bad, but it's not good either.

Overall Album Experience: 4.25/5 I have yet to rank LB amongst the rest of the PJ catalog, but when I do it will show fairly well. I know it is better than the last three albums. I may rank it as high as fourth or fifth. So I have to say not only am I very pleasantly surprised, I am actually overwhelmingly happy at how good this album turned out to be.

p.s. The artwork is really great too!

[Got Some]

Getaway
Lightning bolt
Pendulum
Infallible
MYM
LTRP
Yellow Moon
MFS
Sirens
Swallowed hole
Future days
sBM

[PHATJ]

I'm currently listening through this again. I'm halfway through Infallible, and this fucking album is sooo good. That's all for now.

[daft twat]

Infallible
Getaway
Pendulum

Mind Your Manners
Let the Records Play
Swallowed Whole

Sirens
Yellow Moon

Future Days
My Father's Son



Lightning Bolt


Sleeping by Myself

[bluestate]

5/5
My Fathers Son
Lightning Bolt
Pendulum
Swallowed Whole
Let the Records Play

4/5
Mind Your Manners
Sirens
Infallible
Sleeping By Myself

3/5
Getaway
Yellow Moon
Future Days

[bluestate]

I'm currently listening through this again. I'm halfway through Infallible, and this fucking album is sooo good. That's all for now.

totally agree. I wonder if we truly appreciate this album enough?

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

I'm currently listening through this again. I'm halfway through Infallible, and this fucking album is sooo good. That's all for now.

totally agree. I wonder if we truly appreciate this album enough?

It will take time for the newness to wear off and get a real opinion of this album, but i really think its still gonna be great in 6 months

[PHATJ]

I'm currently listening through this again. I'm halfway through Infallible, and this fucking album is sooo good. That's all for now.

totally agree. I wonder if we truly appreciate this album enough?

It will take time for the newness to wear off and get a real opinion of this album, but i really think its still gonna be great in 6 months

I couldn't agree with you both more. Time is always the test, but something feels *different* about this album. It just has that something special that has been missing for a long time.

*That something different may be truly compelling lyrics and distinctly interesting music.

[PHATJ]

I really just want to keep listening to almost every song. They seem to continue to reveal interesting and enjoyable bits with each subsequent listen. That didn't happen on the last two for sure. And because I just don't jive with so much of Riot Act, its been since Binaural that I've gained so much with many multiple listens.

On a side note, Lightning Bolt (the album) makes me dislike Backspacer (by comparison) more and more with every play too.

[Birds in Hell]

This will inevitably change again soon enough, but:

My Father's Son
Pendulum
Swallowed Whole
Lightning Bolt
Getaway
Mind Your Manners
Sleeping by Myself
Infallible
Yellow Moon
Let the Records Play
Sirens
Future Days

[ridleybradout]

One week in, time to crank out a rank...

Fuck yeah
My Father's Son
Swallowed Whole
Pendulum

Yeah
Mind Your Manners
Sirens
Getaway
Lightning Bolt

Meh
Yellow Moon
Infallible
Sleeping By Myself

Neh
Let the Records Play
Future Days

[stip]

Yellow moon ,infallible, and sbm are 3 of my top 6 you jerk!

[harmless]

Yellow moon ,infallible, and sbm are 3 of my top 6 you jerk!

[Birds in Hell]

That's a good lookin' list there you have there, Brad, don't listen to these goobers.

[harmless]

Just tried to rank them. Still can't. "Lightning Bolt" is not at the top but it fares well. "Future Days" is obviously at the bottom, but it's grown on me. Other than that, I wouldn't know how to rank these. The whole thing is solid.

[ridleybradout]

Cheers Spence

That's the beauty of this album you jerks!
The circus effect - something for everyone. I'm sure they'll grow on me as they're not completely irredeemable (hell even FD and LTRP aren't that bad).

I checked my one week in Backspacer rankings earlier and was surprised I had GSMF and Johnny Guitar in the mid-lower tier - they ended up right at the top in the end

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

ok, im gonna try this and know that when i listen tonight i wont agree with this ranking

Pendulum
Yellow Moon - Infallible
Sirens
My Fathers Son
Swallowed Whole - kinda dropping every time i listen to it, but its more of the other songs getting better to me then this one getting bad.
Mind Your Manners - the newness of the others are dropping this one at the moment
Getaway
Let The Records Play
Future Days
Lightning Bolt
Sleeping By Myself

i like what they did with sleeping by myself, but i dont know that i will want to listen to it every time.
i dont know what my deal with lightning bolt is yet, but i dont love it, i like the thought of it but im thinking hearing it live in person will really help it out.

[Mike]

First Rank (I think they're all 3.5-4 stars songs right now. They all might go up or down.)
Yellow Moon
Sleeping By Myself
Getaway
Pendulum
My Father's Son
Infallible

Second Rank (Around 3 stars)
Swallowed Whole
Lightning Bolt
Mind Your Manners
Sirens

Third Rank (Around 2 stars)
Let The Records Play
Future Days

The ranking here is done without thinking too much. It's hard for me to rank songs like Sleeping By Myself/Yellow Moon against songs like Getaway/My Father's Son because they do totally different things for me. I just went with what felt right at this moment. I would probably rank them totally differently the next time. I'm not even sure if Yellow Moon really is my favorite song. And to give the star ratings context: I still somewhat enjoy hearing 2 star songs. They're listenable/nice enough. 3 stars are good songs, 4 songs are really good/almost excellent songs. 5 stars are reserved for truly special songs. Think Corduroy.

[Mike]

I'm always instantly unhappy with my rankings the second I'm done and looking at it.