Anyone who knows me well knows that, in addition to being a total rock music junkie, I'm an unreasonably massive fan of Pearl Jam. It stems from my teens, when the songs on Vs. spoke to me in a way I had previously never thought possible; music was supposed to be just something I listened to for entertainment, not something that actually saw me through some uncertain times and taught me that there was a far greater purpose for songs than background noise.
Fast forwarding to today, I still keep the band close to heart despite the fact that their recorded output over the past fifteen years or so doesn't quite have the same impact. Oh, make no mistake, I still believe them to be one of the greatest bands on the planet at any given moment (especially in the live setting), but at the same time I understand why they aren't widely regarded as an important force in rock anymore. After all, the band engineered it this way. They are what they are today because of decisions they made twenty years ago; hundreds of lesser bands have let the mainstream destroy them while Pearl Jam refused, resisted and (at least for about a decade) shaped the mainstream to their will. Now, they're a beloved band with eternal momentum and a formidable legacy instead of a one-hit wonder that burned out too soon.
Now, Pearl Jam has announced their tenth album, Lightning Bolt. We didn't get much of a listen to (what I'm assuming is lead single) Mind Your Manners, but the 41-second clip does go a teensy bit deeper into the track, picking up the pace and recalling Vitalogy scorcher Spin The Black Circle (just as an Aussie radio station which claimed to have heard the track mentioned a couple weeks back).
Intriguingly, the link to pre-order the album mentions instant access to the track. It's a savvy marketing ploy designed to drive pre-orders from hopeless cases like me who want desperately to hear this track in full.
UPDATE: OFFICIAL AUDIO STREAM
Lightning Bolt is released October 15 on Monkeywrench.
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