Dark Matter (song)

[McParadigm]

Historically, music reviews had a functional usefulness because you couldn’t hear the record until you or someone you knew bought the record. So even if the reviews themselves weren’t anything other than just someone else’s opinion…at least they had indicator words that helped you contextualize the music a bit, before determining if it was a good use of your hard earned cash.

Now, the music is just there for you to have. You don’t need someone to warn you away from the new record, if the band went in a direction you don’t want to follow. You can see for yourself.

So music reviews in the 21st century have morphed into being mostly another form of Internet ‘community dopamine rush as content.’ Finding someone who agrees with you about an opinion, but articulates it for you in a way you might not have. Or someone who tears down a thing you don’t like. Who has a million other followers and a comments section you can see yourself reflected in.

You can see this play out on YouTube channels like that one, where the comments section always has one or more people on hand to post the time codes… So you don’t have to sit through the reviews of artists you don’t actually listen to. You can fast forward to hearing him give his opinion about a record that you already have an opinion about. Hopefully, to hear him talk about how good the thing you like is, or how bad the thing you don’t like is.

I understand why that stuff feels rewarding, but I don’t care for or about it.

[Ms Harmless]

I think their main current useful function is literally bringing attention to something I might not have heard of; it's because of Fantano that I listened to Chat Pile and Svalbard, so he isn't completely useless

[Ms Harmless]

and in terms of movie reviewers, I follow several because they help me make must-see lists

[BurtReynolds]

I think movies are a bit easier to quantify, and I can usually get some sense of a movie by watching/reading a few reviews. With music it's usually impossible to give any sort of useful info. It just boils down to "I like it" or "I didn't like it", with a lot of fancy adjectives and rationalization thrown in.

[Mike]

what is his general take on Pearl Jam independent of Dark Matter?

He's not the a big fan, even of the earlier albums and dislikes Eddies vocal style quite a bit. I don't think he talked about them a lot. He disliked DOTC quite a bit as well.

He’s like the epitome of hipster, of course he’s not going to like Pearl Jam.

Not to be the defender of Anthony Fantano, I'm neither a big fan nor do I dislike him, but he likes quite a lot of mainstream rock music. He thinks Nevermind is one of the best records of all time. Not sure his dislike of Pearl Jam is due to him being a hipster.

yeah personally I think he's just fallen for a bunch of trash talk that dismisses PJ because of what came after them

True. It's all a bit of cliche dismissal due to Ed's singing on Ten as if no other album exists and he never changed vocal styles.

yup, I very much doubt he's even listened to most of the albums; most people are listening to DM thinking "is it like Ten?"

And I actually don't think this is an "Anthony Fantano" problem. I have the feeling this is how a big part of the public sees Pearl Jam. They seem to be one of the lesser critically adored bands from the grunge area and are often not taken as serious as Nirvana for example. This always seemed a bit weird to me when looking at the music taste of the Pearl Jam fans on this site. Most users here listen to a lot of "critically acclaimed" music and love Pearl Jam as well which makes me wonder what caused Pearl Jam to not be critical darlings/not be taken more serious among music fans?

[Ms Harmless]

tbf, Fantano is often pretty good at actually describing the sound and vibe of an album as long as he likes it; if he doesn't, he just sounds like another Internet troll

[Ms Harmless]

what is his general take on Pearl Jam independent of Dark Matter?

He's not the a big fan, even of the earlier albums and dislikes Eddies vocal style quite a bit. I don't think he talked about them a lot. He disliked DOTC quite a bit as well.

He’s like the epitome of hipster, of course he’s not going to like Pearl Jam.

Not to be the defender of Anthony Fantano, I'm neither a big fan nor do I dislike him, but he likes quite a lot of mainstream rock music. He thinks Nevermind is one of the best records of all time. Not sure his dislike of Pearl Jam is due to him being a hipster.

yeah personally I think he's just fallen for a bunch of trash talk that dismisses PJ because of what came after them

True. It's all a bit of cliche dismissal due to Ed's singing on Ten as if no other album exists and he never changed vocal styles.

yup, I very much doubt he's even listened to most of the albums; most people are listening to DM thinking "is it like Ten?"

And I actually don't think this is an "Anthony Fantano" problem. I have the feeling this is how a big part of the public sees Pearl Jam. They seem to be one of the lesser critically adored bands from the grunge area and are often not taken as serious as Nirvana for example. This always seemed a bit weird to me when looking at the music taste of the Pearl Jam fans on this site. Most users here listen to a lot of "critically acclaimed" music and love Pearl Jam as well which makes me wonder what caused Pearl Jam to not be critical darlings/not be taken more serious among music fans?

my instinct is that PJ's longevity caused the critics to get bored

[McParadigm]

I don’t mean to make you feel judged for liking a thing, Harm. Musical discovery is wonderful, and it’s always nice to have resources that can expose you to new things. I can imagine him being good in that function.

But that also doesn’t, to me, express any added value to hearing a youtuber’s opinion of Beyoncé’s new single. Or Paramore’s.

I have happily watched multi-hours long, insightful analyses of songs, paintings, records, and even video games. I will engage in conversation on a message board about a song I like or don’t like, because conversation is a two way street with interesting results. I just personally find no value in a YouTube review of a record I already like or don’t like.

Also, Nevermind is Nirvana’s worst studio album. It sacrifices the ragged bruising of the first album for what amounts to as sleek and polished a studio production for its time as this record is for this era. The songwriting is mostly good, with a few skippable tracks, but it largely rides high on a catchy pop rock song couched in a Pixies aesthetic. It is not a bad record. It is a very good record. But one that is inferior to both of their other studio albums, and most of the work being done by their peers at that time. Unlike all other musical opinions, this one is fact, and people who disagree are dumb and wrong. Anyone who thinks I am incorrect should look inward, at the horrors that have clouded their soul, for god’s light has ceased to shine upon thee and never can again.

Other than that one thing, music is all subjective and opinion is best saved for conversations, not YouTube videos.

[Bammer]

How many pages is the Dark Matter (song) thread in the Pit?

[Ms Harmless]

I don’t mean to make you feel judged for liking a thing, Harm. Musical discovery is wonderful, and it’s always nice to have resources that can expose you to new things. I can imagine him being good in that function.

But that also doesn’t, to me, express any added value to hearing a youtuber’s opinion of Beyoncé’s new single. Or Paramore’s.

I have happily watched multi-hours long, insightful analyses of songs, paintings, records, and even video games. I will engage in conversation on a message board about a song I like or don’t like, because conversation is a two way street with interesting results. I just personally find no value in a YouTube review of a record I already like or don’t like.

Also, Nevermind is Nirvana’s worst studio album. It sacrifices the ragged bruising of the first album for what amounts to as sleek and polished a studio production for its time as this record is for this era. The songwriting is mostly good, with a few skippable tracks, but it largely rides high on a catchy pop rock song couched in a Pixies aesthetic. It is not a bad record. It is a very good record. But one that is inferior to both of their other studio albums, and most of the work being done by their peers at that time. Unlike all other musical opinions, this one is fact, and people who disagree are dumb and wrong. Anyone who thinks I am incorrect should look inward, at the horrors that have clouded their soul, for god’s light has ceased to shine upon thee and never can again.

Other than that one thing, music is all subjective and opinion is best saved for conversations, not YouTube videos.

I don't think anyone's opinion has any "added value" over another; I don't see critics as authorities in any way; but well-articulated reviews, especially from people I've followed for a while and have shown they somewhat share my taste, can make me think "that sounds interesting, I'm going to Amazon Music / Prime to listen / watch"; ultimately, it's me who will decide if I think that critic was wrong or not

I don't care about critics as taste-makers, but they can be signposts

[Ms Harmless]

also, I like just hearing / seeing people talk about stuff I love (music, film, reptiles, whatever); discourse for its own sake

[Jaeti]

Has anyone from the listening party described this song as one of the best tunes on the album?

I do not believe so.

[blueviper]

who is Anthony Fantano?

This guy. One of the most popular (if not the most popular?) youtube music reviewers.

Wearing a knit hat indoors and takes over a minute to advertise his crap

Pass.

[Jorge]

Historically, music reviews had a functional usefulness because you couldn’t hear the record until you or someone you knew bought the record. So even if the reviews themselves weren’t anything other than just someone else’s opinion…at least they had indicator words that helped you contextualize the music a bit, before determining if it was a good use of your hard earned cash.

Now, the music is just there for you to have. You don’t need someone to warn you away from the new record, if the band went in a direction you don’t want to follow. You can see for yourself.

And now you have an ocean of content to sift through, and the question isn't about "determining if it's a good use of your hard earned cash," but rather of your time and attention, which are finite. Culture writers (I'm including all kinds of "reviewers" under this blanket term because I believe the same applies to all of them) are useful as navigators and curators in a similar way. The really good ones are able to engage with the work, examine and analyze it in a way that shines a new light on it, or helps me find new dimensions to the piece. I think reading reviews you disagree with is often illuminating too. If you stay in the shallow waters of "this is good, you should listen to it" vs. "this is bad, don't listen to it" you're not gonna get anything out of em (I think this is where Fantano lives), but the really good ones are much more than that. It's like reading a Pauline Kael book vs. snarky Letterboxd one-liners.

also, I like just hearing / seeing people talk about stuff I love (music, film, reptiles, whatever); discourse for its own sake

Also yeah this

[Monkey_Driven]

Has anyone from the listening party described this song as one of the best tunes on the album?

I do not believe so.

That's good.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[dprival78]

i don't know what happened, but i'm suddenly enjoying this song today..

i love wotman now?

[RockPusher]

Also, Nevermind is Nirvana’s worst studio album. It sacrifices the ragged bruising of the first album for what amounts to as sleek and polished a studio production for its time as this record is for this era.

The other day I caught my 11 year-old son humming Love Buzz. It was a very proud parent moment.

[RockPusher]

I bought the hi-res version of Dark Matter on Qobuz and it sounds better than the mixes I've heard so far. Look forward to hearing the Dolby Atmos version at some point, but for now, this version, with its clearer vocals, punchier drums and a little more of what I think folks call separation will hold me over.

[Mike]

I enjoy the song quite a bit but this is the first time I'd say the production is almost ruining my enjoyment of a song. I've been critical of the production of their albums since Avocado but it's mostly been "This would be way better with nicer production" and not much more. The production on this song goes into "this actively annoys me" territory, especially with headphones. I'm actually a little bit mad about it since what I dislike about the song is done completely on purpose. This is not a matter of them not being creative or good songwriters anymore.

I really really want to enjoy this more and it's just this one part keeping me from enjoying it. This is frustrating me.