Pearl Jam
Lightning Bolt

The current trend among bands is to keep producing albums even when they have nothing left to say, when the members reach half a century in age, often contaminating their own discography. Listening to the first two singles from "Lightning Bolt," particularly the pseudo-punk "Mind Your Manners," I feared that the time had also come for the band that has warmed my heart the most since I learned to use my ears.

How wonderful it is that I was wrong! As far as I'm concerned, this is their best effort since "No Code," no doubt about it. An album that has absolute beauty gems at its heart.

The album opens with "Getaway," a classic Vedder-style piece, nothing extraordinary if it weren't for the elaborate vocal line. Eddie has regained a form forgotten for more than a decade, in which both in the studio and live, he mainly relied on the aggression of his screams to amaze. Now, instead, there is a performance reminiscent of the cleanliness of the beginnings, but applied to decidedly less redundant pieces.

It continues with three nice, listenable pieces, but nothing exciting. The change of pace comes with the first title track in their discography, a track always penned by the singer, which has the strange power to put a strange smile on my face with every single listen, with its extremely joyful initial riff.

However, what the album will probably be remembered for by the band's fans are the two central pieces of the set: "Infallible" and "Pendulum." Sounds not entirely new to the rock world, but certainly unusual for the band from Seattle, like the bowed guitar played by Mike McCready. The compositional level hasn't been this high since "Present Tense", and this thanks to the return of the Ament-Gossard duo, who hadn't written together for almost twenty years.

Noteworthy are the delta blues "Let the Records Play" and "Yellow Moon" ("Into the Wild" is always around the corner), surrounded by songs that never seem boring. A classic anti-commercial move in full Pearl Jam style: the lead single of the entire project is also the worst of the twelve tracks. The trust of the fans was severely tested during the pre-promotion period, but the purity of this album is a more than worthy reward. Now at concerts, people will no longer have to "endure" the performance of the new pieces, as has happened with the last four albums. The new pieces will be awaited as much as the classics from "Vitalogy" or "Ten."

If you don't love Pearl Jam or if you stopped at 1993, I'm sure you won't even try to give "Lightning Bolt" a chance. This review is for those who love them, for those who consider Vedder's voice that of an old friend who comforts you when every day seems too similar to the previous one. And for those waiting for their return to Italy, for those waiting to be once again overwhelmed by the energy these fifty-year-olds can still master.