Pearl Jam's new album, Lightning Bolt, is up for streaming a week ahead of its official release on iTunes.

The band released the second single, Sirens, off of the album last month, and released the first single, Mind Your Manners, during the last week of August. The videos for both songs were directed by Danny Clinch.

Frontman Eddie Vedder suggested that most of his lyrics on this album focused on the topic of mortality, in a Rolling Stone interview."They say to write what you know. I think that's maybe one thing that we all know," he said. "It's living while you're alive, and living to the day you die, and being cognizant of the end, and you might lead a more appreciative life, if that's part of your approach. " 

Guitarist Mike McCready also recently spoke to the Exclaim about the new album, which was produced by Brendan O'Brien.

"I feel Brendan put us through the grinder and really made us try things in different ways whenever we got together," McCready said. "We accomplished a lot going through that process. It wasn't always enjoyable, but that's okay. Out of that came some cool art. It's silly for me to even complain about it, but I guess what I'm saying is we had to work hard to get to it, and I get a great sense of pride out of that."

In the interview McCready also said that he derived inspiration from the Dead Kennedys when writing the music for the song, Mind Your Manners, and Neil Young for songs like Yellow Moon, which borrows a few words from Young's Helpless.  He even suggested that there were some David Gilmour influences on there.

Mind Your Manners was an explosive riot which lassoed themes of gun violence, global warming, war and terrorism. "Try my patience/My patience trying/This world's a lonely living/That makes me want to cry/All along they're saying/Mind your manners," Vedder's angst-ridden vocals drove the point home. 

Unlike Mind Your Manners, the second single, Sirens mined inspiration from the other, more loverlorn side of Pearl Jam. On the song, Vedder's poetic and bittersweet strain, that was more pronounced in his solo career, was varnished by Pearl Jam's indelible raucousness. Four minutes into the song, a shredding guitar solo breaks the mellow drift.

The band's tour promoting Lightning Bolt kicks off in Pittsburgh on October 11.

The album will release on Oct. 14.

Watch the video for Sirens:

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