Goddammit, it still makes my ears ring.
There have been countless albums I’ve loved over the years, but there are a few that are extra special, records that I immediately loved the second I heard them. And yet, even after listening to these records hundreds of times, I still feel a certain baffled wonder. Beaches and Canyons is one; Endless Summer is another. Most of Gastr Del Sol’s discography too. And then, of course, there is Lightning Bolt’s Wonderful Rainbow (our third favorite album of the 2000s).
Wonderful Rainbow turned 10 earlier this year. Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised by that? Part of that is obviously because this record still sounds like it could have come out last year, or last week, or 20 years ago (Lightning Bolt touring with a young Jesus Lizard sounds like one of the more awesome alternate realities). But I suppose I’m more surprised by the fact that
I remember the band and this particular album was recommended to me by a guy who worked in a great New Haven record store. He wrote up a big list of things he thought I might like (I can distinctly remember Kevin Drumm’s Sheer Hellish Miasma and the self-titled album by Sightings being on there). I got it, put it on, and had no idea what to expect. The first track “Hello Morning” still works best as sort of a red herring setup for what’s to come, but as soon as “Assassins” blasted in, I was sold. It takes a very special sort of band to make you a fan in under 10 seconds, but that song still does that to me after all these years. What follows is a glorious set of songs that usually get described as extremely aggressive, repetitive, redundant, melodic, manic, and chaotic. I disagree with that last one, however. Lightning Bolt are not chaotic; they are in fact absolutely graceful in their spartan simplicity, and never is that more apparent than on this record. But none of those descriptions can really get across how happy — no, how fucking blissful this record sounds or how much fun it is to listen to.
I could go on more, but I’d feel like I was giving an overlong wedding toast at a friend’s reception. Frankly, I’m just happy that we’ve all gotten to appreciate this album for a decade, and that more and more people will get to discover it over time. This thing will always loom over any band that thinks they want to play noise rock.
So thanks Lightning Bolt, and here’s to another 10 years of tinnitus from your records.