Pearl Jam: Lightning Bolt – review

Pearl Jam. Photograph: Danny Clinch

Pearl Jam: Lightning Bolt – Album Review
By Dom Lawson

Still flying the flag for independence of thought and movement while stoically avoiding getting bogged down in the music-biz bullshit that so plainly jars with their earnest motives, Pearl Jam have always been admirable, even when their music has fallen some way short of exciting.

Pleasingly, Lightning Bolt finds the Seattle quintet in a more bullish and spiky mood than usual, as exemplified by the furious, spittle-spraying punk rush of Mind Your Manners. On the similarly urgent My Father’s Son, they pull off the neat trick of sounding like Fugazi and UFO at the same time, as Eddie Vedder delivers one of his most intense performances to date.

There are still gentle moments here, of course: the plaintive shuffle of Sirens and the wonderfully fragile Pendulum striking the sweetest chords. Elsewhere, the title track nimbly evokes the surging spirit of Pearl Jam’s mid-90s creative zenith, replete with a euphoric frisson of Springsteen-esque bombast, while Let the Records Play lives up to its name with an infectious, blues-flecked groove. A few ponderous moments aside, this is a sturdy return to great form.

Published on Jul 11, 2013
Pearl Jam is back with their tenth studio album, Lightning Bolt, out October 15th, 2013. Pre-order the album here: http://smarturl.it/PJLightningBolt

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With nine studio albums, hundreds of live performances, and hundreds of live concert bootleg releases, Pearl Jam continues to be a major force in rock and roll today. Subscribe to Pearl Jam’s YouTube channel for more music, live videos, and behind the scenes footage!

Arctic Monkeys forced to cancel performance as Kanye West overruns on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ – watch

Watch Part 1 of the Kanye West interview.

Sheffield band were due to perform live on chat show but had to postpone as rapper talked for too long.

Kanye West appeared on US late-night television show Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, talking for so long musical guests Arctic Monkeys were unable to perform in their scheduled slot.The Sheffield band will have to reschedule their planned performance after West appeared on the show less than a fortnight after he lashed out at the TV host for his parody of West’s now infamous interview with Zane Lowe on BBC Radio.

Last month, (September 26), West reacted angrily to a parody interview aired on Kimmel’s TV chat show, in which he spoofed Kanye’s extraordinary radio interview. The pair met on Kimmel’s chat show last night (October 9) with the ‘Yeezus’ rapper holding a relatively polite interview, mainly due to Kimmel being friendly and offering his guest a pair of child sized leather sweat pants for his daughter, North.Elsewhere in the interview, part one of which you can see above with the second part at the bottom of the page, West discussed everything from the fact he thinks girlfriend Kim Kardashian should have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame to his feelings on classism, first touched upon in the Zane Lowe interview last month.

Speaking about his rant at Kimmel following the spoof he aired, West explained his actions by saying: “This is the one person I know, so I can go and let out everything that I feel about every single bogus weekly cover, every single bogus skit, every single rumor in barbershop, everything that people feel is OK to treat celebrities like zoo animals or act like what they’re saying is not serious or their life is not serious or their dreams are not serious.”Other choice quotes from the interview include West saying, “Media does everything they can to break creatives, and I do everything I can to break media.” and “If I said I wasn’t a genius, I would just be lying to you and to myself.”Watch Part 2 of the Kanye West interview.