Pearl Jam Take The Lid Off Lightning Bolt
Pearl Jam debut new short film unveiling tenth album. Plus: read MOJO’s 4-star album review.
Ahead of Pearl Jam’s new album Lightning Bolt, the band have posted this short film by film maker/photographer Danny Clinch featuring famous fans interviewing the band puctuated by songs from the album.
The inquisitors include director Judd Apatow and Sleater-Kinney/Wild Flag and now television’s own Carrie Brownstein, who establishes early on the exact degree of the band’s hearing loss (Matt Cameron’s Mike McCready’s ears are ringing right now!). It’s intimate, funny and casts new light on Eddie's typewriter ribbon dramas. Settle down Jam fans and watch it here:
Lightning Bolt the album is released on October 14th. Here's an early taste of MOJO's four-star review of the album by Stevie Chick.
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As the anthemic grungers enter their third decade, the tension between their fleshy ‘classic rock’ core and punk rock impulses grows only more pronounced. Recorded in two separate bursts, Pearl Jam’s tenth album veers between explosive rockers and dulcet ballads. Getaway and Mind Your Manners pick up the pared-back, garage-y hurtle of 2009’s Backspacer, albeit with added thrilling scree from lead guitarist Mike McCready. The softer tracks find the group negotiating their path to maturity with confidence; Sleeping By Myself clearly began life as one of Eddie Vedder’s ukulele ditties, and might turn off the gruffer, more cynical corner of the audience, but its aching charm is undeniable. Sent skyward by a classic McCready guitar solo and a sensitive, restrained vocal from Vedder, the piano-driven Sirens cleaves to just the right side of sentimental cliché – a tightrope Pearl Jam have profitably trodden throughout their career. STEVIE CHICK