And while the upward-arced anthemery of the title track and вЂњSwallowed WholeвЂќ continue to dutifully honor this holy trinity, Lightning Bolt also betrays the long-term diluting effects of spending too much time hanging on the right of the dial.

And вЂњMy FatherвЂ™s SonвЂќ is the rare latter-day Pearl Jam rave-up to put the spotlight on bassist Jeff Ament, whose sense of groove-once the cornerstone of the bandвЂ™s sound-has been deemphasized by bandвЂ™s ever-growing propensity for straight-ahead, chug-a-lug rockers.Дespite their punk-schooled principles, Pearl Jam have never been shy about their debt to classic rock, but itвЂ™s usually good classic rock: The Who, Crazy Horse, the Stones. вЂњSpin the Black Circle Some MoreвЂќ-reformulates the original grunge cocktail recipe of mid-1970s hard rock and early 80s hardcore, with a chooglinвЂ™ intro reminiscent of early KISS deep cut вЂњParasiteвЂќ that gets mowed down by a boot-stomping blitzkrieg, which in turn is blindsided by a sublimely melodic middle-eight. If Pearl Jam can no longer recapture the sort of hot-wired intensity that once had Vedder stage-diving off festival scaffolding, they can at least still raise an inspired ruckus when the mood strikes: вЂњMind Your MannersвЂќ-a.k.a. The feeling of dГ©jГ vu is compounded by the strip-mined subject matter, as Eddie Vedder explores familiar themes of family strife and domestic unrest while once again celebrating the therapeutic powers of surfing and listening to music on vinyl. Like 2009вЂ™s Backspacer before it (and 2006вЂ™s Pearl Jam before it, and 2002вЂ™s Riot Act before it), Lightning Bolt begins with a spirited sprint before sputtering out and winding up in dullsville. So if youвЂ™ve been paying any attention to Pearl JamвЂ™s activities over the past decade, you already know what to expect from Lightning Bolt (and itвЂ™s certainly not a tribute to the Rhode Island avant-metal duo of the same name heck, even the Pink Floyd comparisons bandied about in pre-release interviews seem offbase, unless your conception of Pink Floyd begins and ends with вЂњMotherвЂќ). (Even the tracklist sequences are invariably similar: the second song will be a no-fuss rocker that serves as the single, and the album will inevitably close with a wistfully earnest ballad.) Pearl Jam are arguably the only modern rock band of note that consciously moved away from its formative, hit-making sound-in the period spanning Vitalogy through to 2000вЂ™s *Binaural-*but came out the other side an even more traditional, predictable band.

You just get another nine to 13 Pearl Jam songs that-as per the quiet/loud division of 2004 anthology *Rearviewmirror-*can be easily slotted into one of two categories. Pearl Jam ceased long ago to be a band that makes records with any sense of occasion to them: no intriguing backstory, no conceptual constructs to shape the albumвЂ™s identity, no new contemporary influences that might push them in an unexpected direction.

And yet, even an exhaustive documentary produced by a super-fan like Crowe doesnвЂ™t have much to say about the bandвЂ™s post-millennial output-because thereвЂ™s really not a lot to say.

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