Lightning Bolt v King Animal v The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Olivavu

I'm With You is woeful.

Wasting Light is alright.

I would probably go:

LB
KA
WL
TDPDH
IWY

emjot

Digital Twilight wrote:

King Animal easily. Still great a year later. Half of Lightning Bolt is throw away. I'd happily take another soundgarden album over Pearl Jam right now. I feel their next album could be even better than KA but with Pearl Jam I'm not so sure. The AiC album was very disappointing, I liked Black Gives Way to Blue but this album is just boring bar two songs.

So:

KA

LB

TDPDBH

I just couldn't say it better! My thoughts EXACTLY.

Olivavu

Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.

But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.

There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.

Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.

And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.

While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.

So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.

And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Olivavu wrote:

Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.

But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.

There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.

Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.

And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.

While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.

So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.

And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!

Taree is my favourite song off that album.

King Animal has been an underrated release in my mind- it fits as the next album Soundgarden should have released.

Too bad their show at the QE in Van sounded so bad.

facepollution

Olivavu wrote:

Before I heard LB I thought KA would be the better album as SG had years of ideas and lost time in the bank.

But LB is the better album for me. And by a reasonably comfortable gap.

There are too many boring songs on KA that just don't do it for me - which has been a problem for me with that band. The best songs on their albums are so much better than the weaker songs - on practically all their albums.

Taree, Bones of Birds, Attrition, Black Saturday...they just aren't that good.

And Halfway There is a bad Cornell solo song. It's just not SG.

While Crooked Steps, Non State, Eyelid's Mouth, Blood On, Been Away, Rowing and Thousand Days are way better.

So those calling LB a 50/50 album need to look a little closer at KA, because the gap between the tracks on there is stark.

And the reviews of LB are better anyway. Whatever that's worth!

Bones Of Birds is amazing, don't know what you're on! Taree and Attrition kind of sneaked up on me and I really enjoy them now after thinking they were justs so so. And I still love that break down in Black Saturday, I could listen to it for ages

I'll agree with you on Halfway There though, utterly pointless addition to the record, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and I can't believe they didn't have any other songs that they could have used.

Olivavu

I find Taree quite boring.

Eyelids Mouth is probably my favourite. Crooked Steps is a contender too.

Of The Aggie

King Animal is definitely a progression from Down on The Upside and Soundgarden picked back up right where they left off. I don't think there is one bad song on that album. Bones of Birds and Taree are two of the better tracks and I don't even mind Halfway There.

Lightning Bolt on the other hand is a progression from Backspacer and not in a good way. Backspacer is not that great of an album and to continue something similar but more mellow and adult contemporary is going in the wrong direction. After the long wait, I was so disappointed in Lightning Bolt. I really thought they would have shifted away from Backspacer.

While TDPDH is a small step backwards from BGWTB, it is still a solid album and I find that I like it more every time I listen to it.

Olivavu

Bones of Birds and Taree are quite bland.

Attrition just isn't very good.

Halfway There is poor.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Olivavu wrote:

Bones of Birds and Taree are quite bland.

Attrition just isn't very good.

Halfway There is poor.

I'm thinking, from the responses you evoked, that you are very much in the minority for Taree.

JimNastics

For me, King Animal is so far ahead of the other two in practically every aspect, that there is not even a comparison to be made. It has songs of pure quality that sit comfortably with the band's previous output, which can not be said at all for the other two. A Thousand Days Before I would happily put among my favourite Soundgarden tracks of all time.
Lighting Bolt was a massive let down, a huge disappointment for me and, like Of the Aggie said, a really bad progression from Backspacer. It is completely underwhelming, middle-of-the-road rock. There is nothing on the album of any substance whatsoever. I'm genuinely despondent about what has happened to Pearl Jam since Avocado, for me they have become a touring nostalgia act, which I never thought would happen.

Olivavu

Taree is better than Bones of Birds and Attrition. And Halfway There is easily the worst on the album. It just sounds like a bad Cornell solo number.

Eyelid's Mouth is probably my favourite on the album.

But I prefer Lightning Bolt to it, definitely.

I prefer all PJ albums

Olivavu

JimNastics wrote:

For me, King Animal is so far ahead of the other two in practically every aspect, that there is not even a comparison to be made. It has songs of pure quality that sit comfortably with the band's previous output, which can not be said at all for the other two. A Thousand Days Before I would happily put among my favourite Soundgarden tracks of all time.
Lighting Bolt was a massive let down, a huge disappointment for me and, like Of the Aggie said, a really bad progression from Backspacer. It is completely underwhelming, middle-of-the-road rock. There is nothing on the album of any substance whatsoever. I'm genuinely despondent about what has happened to Pearl Jam since Avocado, for me they have become a touring nostalgia act, which I never thought would happen.

I thoroughly disagree.

I much prefer Pearl Jam to Soundgarden for starters.

I also like Backspacer and Lightning Bolt. I like the change of style with Backspacer and the variety it brings to the catalogue. The Fixer is excellent in particular and great fun live too. I've no issue with PJ whatsoever.

And I'm really looking forward to hearing Getaway, Sirens and several others live.

I saw Soundgarden a couple of months ago and was quite underwhelmed. It was much better than Hyde Park last year, which bordered on ridiculous. But I still enjoyed Cornell at the Roundhouse in 2007 a hell of a lot more.

And I saw Alice In Chains a couple of weeks ago. Was the fourth and most likely last time.

DewieCox

I don't really hear the comparisons between Backspacer and Lightning Bolt as a whole. Backspacer is basically worthless. There are a few songs there that sound like they put any effort into at all. I don't think Lightning Bolt is among their best work, but it seems that Stone and Jeff were pretty displeased with how little was put into BS artistically and made efforts to amend that with LB. Outside of the "Ed solo" tracks, none of those would fit with the m.o. of Backspacer.

Olivavu

Lightning Bolt and Future Days could easily have been on Backspacer.

And why do you think Jeff and Stone feel that way?

DewieCox

Olivavu wrote:

Lightning Bolt and Future Days could easily have been on Backspacer.

And why do you think Jeff and Stone feel that way?

I think for Lightning Bolt to fit in with Backspacer it would need to be simplified and lose some of the layering.

Displeased is probably the wrong word, but they seem to have stepped it up a notch on a creative level for LB. Stuff like Pendulum, Infallible, Let the Records Play, and Yellow Moon shows quite a bit more artistry than anything on Backspacer. Or take something like Sirens, which is really basic and uninteresting thing on the surface....Stone draws you in with the atmospheric stuff and takes a pretty bland power ballad and adds quite a bit with some reverbed sparse playing and Bigsby wobbles.

Olivavu

I really like Sirens. I think it's an excellent track that has nods to Pink Floyd. The lyrics are poignant, personal and open. Great song.

I don't see Lightning Bolt as akin to Backspacer though. It's darker and deeper. But the change of mood with Backspacer is very nice. I like the fact there's a more upbeat and cheerful than usual PJ album. I enjoyed the tour and like most of the songs live. Just Breathe I like on the album, but I heard it too many times live. Unthought Known, Got Some, The Fixer and Amongst The Waves are particular favourites live.

The post G W Bush mood of it is great.

I rate that above King Animal as well. Comfortably.

But I love all PJs albums

red mos

LB
King Animal
TDPDH

All are good albums though.

DURP

OP you forgot Mudhoney

I will go

Vanishing Point. For me it stays true to the Mudhoney Seattle sound we have grown to love. There is not a single song I skip over when listening to the MP3 of it. The vinyl I have of it I love I was lucky to get the clear Smokey vinyl. This is my favorite record of theirs so far. But I seem to say that after every Mudhoney release.

Lightning Bolt. It's a good album I could do with out Sirens for me that song is Just Breathe all over again. With out Sirens I think this would be number one.

King Animal. I don't know what it is but for some reason I can not get into this album. I have listened to it many times and still it is spun the least among the three.

Olivavu

I didn't include Mudhoney because they aren't one of the 'big four'.

Olivavu

Has time changed the mind of anyone on these albums?

I haven't listened to TDPDH since the time this thread was posted.