The chorus totally is, but it works for ne.never destination is definitely the best version of this kind of song. I think The Fixer is aiming for something a little different, and Marker feels (to me) altogether different. Like prototype Achtung Baby U2

I was SO excited for the idea of arc but Ive never enjoyed it. It suffers from the monochromatic sameness issue I have with Riot Act. Maybe I just want it in a higher register (hard sun/retrograde outro)

it is very like RM, and yes RM is better, but I also think this barnstormer slaps

All or None, like thumbing my way, works better for me in the abstract. But despite a believable lived in performance and some blistering work by Mike at this point I feel like I already heard this multiple times. And stone’s basic guitar part isn’t interesting enough in itself. If this song felt more like an outlier it would be more powerful

that's fair

I think The Fixer is different too; it's a brighter, more 80s pop punk, almost Riot Grrrl, but... without the Grrrl

Riot Act is tough for me. With a few exceptions I quite like the first 9 songs (it feels more cohesive to me than no code, yield, or binaural), and once S/T confirmed that Eddie’s tired performance was a choice I really warmed to it. But this album runs out of steam for me hard in the back third, and it drags the whole thing down.


It doesnt quite fit but I wish Undone was wad on here. Huge fan


This is also Mike’s last unequivocally great album

incidentally that's kinda why I like The Fixer but I wish it was sung by... Debbie Harry

sure, but it always felt a bit like an average holocaust movie winning an academy award to me. The sentiment and actual experience is carrying the day, rather than the artistry or performance

i get that critique of UK. Lightning Bolt is abstract but feels like bottled liberation. genuinely one of my favorite pj songs

I just think you want a different type of performance, which is valid

maybe, but LBC shoukd be right in my wheelhouse

having said that, I get why others would like this one. I am more puzzled by how much I don’t

it is the resigned glint of hope that I love about LBC (and all of Riot Act); there's nothing that reaches the all-out jubilation in the closing jam of, say, "Better Man" (or for you, "Lightning Bolt") but that is because the boat is moored by the line, and the fact of, "Lost 9 friends we'll never know / two years ago today"; it is simultaneously grieving while trying (musically and lyrically) to stir hope in the listener; see how "all you need is love" is so hecking *unconvinced* of its truth, because, like all of Riot Act, it wants to still believe, but it is exhausted... you have to sit with it, grieve with it for your own losses, and then its quaint little platitudes begin to carry the intimacy of two old friends getting drunk and comparing notes on what might be left to live for; it's not a lot, on this album, but the brightness of that hammond organ that starts up the song just sounds like the damn sun rising to me

Riot Act is not the all-guns-blazing fight to get it back again that came later, but its nuanced and complex searching is beautiful and important to me

Spot on. Nick Cave's Skeleton Tree is similar tonally. And it ends with a quiet acceptance of that grief.

there's hope on the periphery on Riot Act, but it willingly sits with its heavy grief, and I love that about it; it's not angry anymore, it's just worn out

"Can't Keep" says "I can't stay here, I have to move on", and "Save You" says "I won't leave you here, we have to move on"

what a fucking fantastic 1-2 punch

I'd never heard that, it made me cry

yes! very Riot Act tone

Try the whole album. It tears me apart. If not the whole album then just the last 3 songs alone will have you in a heap.

i agree. it is what i love about its best moments.

and very nicely put