The music for Lightning Bolt has a harder rock sound with longer songs in contrast to predecessor Backspacer (2009), and the lyrics convey singer Eddie Vedder's feelings on aging and mortality.

Preceded by a promotional campaign focusing on Pearl Jam's website and social network profiles and two moderately successful singles, "Mind Your Manners" and "Sirens", Lightning Bolt was well received by critics, who considered the album an effective return to the band's old sound, and topped the charts in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

"[7] Guitarist Stone Gossard added that despite the bandmembers thinking that after the productive sessions the album was nearing completion, eventually they considered the tracks "didn’t feel strong enough for a record.

[18] Stone Gossard added that the band being more comfortable with the composing and recording process lead to "a slight return to some of the more sort of peculiar things we did, say, between No Code and Binaural.

"[8] McCready said that "there's a Pink Floyd vibe to some of it, there's a punk rock edge to other stuff",[18] with the lead singles "Mind Your Manners" and "Sirens" being inspired by the Dead Kennedys and a concert in Roger Waters' The Wall Live, respectively.

[19] While writing the lyrics to Lightning Bolt, Vedder tried to be less cryptic in expressing his feelings compared to the "word games" of previous Pearl Jam albums.

[13] The songs discuss lasting relationships, bad faith ("Getaway," "Mind Your Manners"), the state of the world ("Infallible") and life's transience ("Pendulum"),[21] which Vedder summed up as "the same mysteries that I’ve been trying to unravel for a few decades now.

[32] On September 18, 2013, the band released Lightning Bolt's second single, "Sirens",[33][34] and put online a short documentary directed by Danny Clinch where the bandmembers discussed the new album with friends Carrie Brownstein, Judd Apatow, Mark Richards and Steve Gleason.

[40] The band promoted the release of the album with a week-long programme of shows on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which included live performances of "Sirens" and the title track "Lightning Bolt".

[50] In May 2014, the band announced a ten-date tour of the American Midwest starting on October 1, 2014, to coincide with two appearances at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

[61] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album four out of five stars, stating that the band seemed more settled and comfortable while "accentuating the big riffs and bigger emotions, crafting songs without a worry as to whether they're hip or not and, most importantly, enjoying the deep-rooted, nervy arena rock that is uniquely their own.

"[63] Jim Farber of the New York Daily News gave the album four out of five stars, commenting that while "some key sounds and sensibilities" and uplifting lyrics were unlike Pearl Jam's earlier style, the music in Lightning Bolt marked a return to the "thick-bottomed rhythms, hard-nosed guitars and darkened tone of classic Pearl Jam" compared to predecessor Backspacer.

[69] Tom Willmott of The Independent gave the album three out of five stars, considering Lightning Bolt to "offer a broad range of styles" and praising the rock-focused tracks.

[72] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone gave the album three and a half stars out of five, saying that Eddie Vedder's earnest lyrics and vocals made for compelling tracks, and that the musicians "overthink, overemote and overreach — fruitfully".

"[62] Marc Hirsh of The Boston Globe considered the album to showcase that Pearl Jam "has plenty of spark left", comparing it to both the "dense eclecticism" of the band's own Vitalogy (1994), and "The Who’s solidity of purpose".

Years removed from the raw emotion and desperate appetites of youth, Pearl Jam has slipped into alt-rock elder statesmanship as one would a comfortable old sweater.

"[70] Rob Harvilla of Spin gave the album a six out of ten, describing it as "far from an implosion, far from spectacular", criticizing the focus on calm songs and considering that Backspacer "barked louder and bit harder overall.

"[71] In his 5.0 out of 10 review for Pitchfork, Stuart Berman also had a negative reaction to what he described as "centerpiece ballads [that] tread on odious Lite-FM territory and forcefully tip the scales from poignant to maudlin".

"[76] Lightning Bolt became Pearl Jam's fifth studio album to have debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 166,000 copies in the United States.

In the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II, Joel performs an acoustic guitar cover of "Future Days" for Ellie and teaches her how to play it.