I always liked the use of one-word song titles on the first couple albums. I don't care for titles that almost spell out a full sentence.

RE: the thread topic, I still haven't listened to all the songs from Backspacer, so who knows. I'll go with Lightning Bolt.

That's an excellent list

When trying to decide which of these albums I like better it pretty much comes down to whether I want the higher high's mixed in with the lower low's (Backspacer) or whether I want to go the safer route and stick with the mostly average material (Lightning Bolt)

I think of the songs on this scale:
5 - deserves a spot among my favorite PJ songs
4 - can hold it's own against the rest of PJ's catalog
3 - gets lost in the depth of quality of the catalog but still plays its part on the album
2 - I could live without this
1 - kill me now

Backspacer:
5 - johnny guitar
4 - gonna see my friend, got some, amongst the waves, speed of sound
3 - unthought known, force of nature, the end
2 - just breathe, supersonic
1 - the fixer

Lightning Bolt:
4 - my father's son, infallible, swallowed whole, yellow moon
3 - mind your manners, sirens, lightning bolt, pendulum, let the records play, sleeping by myself
2 - getaway, future days

I just put together THE BEST Light-spacer.

1. Gonna See My Friend
2. Mind Your Manners
3. My Father's Son
4. Johnny Guitar
5. Yellow Moon
6. Got Some
7. Lightning Bolt
8. Pendulum

9. Swallowed Whole
10. Infallible
11. Speed of Sound
12. Amongst the Waves

I added Ole, and now it's even better.

1. Gonna See My Friend
2. Mind Your Manners
3. My Father's Son
4. Johnny Guitar
5. Yellow Moon
6. Got Some
7. Lightning Bolt
8. Pendulum
9. Ole

This is seriously really good, loving it.

Ole is a pretty enjoyable song. In fact, I would take that music with the MYM lyrics and now you've got something worthy of a lead single.

I've really been enjoying the piss out of Backspacer lately. Not so much with Lightning Bolt.

I like Olé's lyrics much more those of MYM.

Whatchoo say when you've had enuff of knuckleheads?
Whatchoo say but "olé"!?

what's with the 90s comic book character spelling here

It seemed fitting somehow.

Fair enuff.

Put this list together this morning, I called it Backbolt Lightspacer. I'm super creative, obviously.

There's a really great album somewhere in the last 7 years, you just have to look for it. I kinda like this one, it's been on at my desk for a couple hours, this is my third time through. I'm digging it on repeat.

51 minutes

1. Pendulum
2. My Father's Son
3. Gonna See My Friend
4. Force of Nature
5. Swallowed Whole
6. Infallible
7. Speed of Sound (Ed acoustic demo)
8. Ole
9. Johnny Guitar
10. Sleeping by Myself
11. Mind Your Manners
12. Got Some
13. Yellow Moon
14. The End
15. Pendulumorphisis

I like the pendulum/pendulumorphosis bookends--callback to master/slave a bit

I can still listen to most of LB. I can't listen to Backspacer.

Looks pretty solid

Mind Your Manners
Getaway
My Father's Son
Johnny Guitar
Got Some
Pendulum
Lightning Bolt
Sleeping By Myself
Yellow Moon
The End

i listened to both of these recently and was much less offended by backspacer.

I think I may have solved my Lightning Bolt problem:

1. Olé
2. Getaway
3. Mind Your Manners
4. My Father's Son
5. Lightning Bolt
6. Infallible
7. Pendulum
8. Swallowed Whole
9. Let the Records Play
10. Sleeping By Myself
11. Yellow Moon
12. Sirens

This addresses my 3 biggest issues with the album:
1. Getaway just doesn't work as an opener. That weak opening guitar riff does not properly set the tone for the album. Olé gives the album some much needed balls and, lyrics aside, it's a surprisingly good fit for this album.
2. Sirens appears way too early in the tracklist and the transition out of MFS is pretty awkward. MFS>LB keeps the momentum of the first half rolling along more smoothly.
3. Future Days should've been saved for Ed's next solo record. Sirens works much better here with the added advantage that I can easily skip it when I'm just not in the mood for its melodrama. I like Sirens to a certain point but it certainly suffers from "one of these things is not like the other" syndrome. Placing it at the end makes it much less of a distraction.

Future days is the worst pj song.

Its not even a pj song...its a very bland and boring eddie vedder tune. I hate it.