Dark Matter (song)

General Pearl Jam discussion.
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Dark Matter Initial Reactions

5 Stars
33
17%
4 Stars
92
48%
3 Stars
56
29%
2 Stars
8
4%
1 Star
3
2%
 
Total votes: 192

Ms Harmless
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

this song is still a 4! woop woop
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 7:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Strat
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

Down to a 3.

Haven't listened on headphones in a few days but the car listens don't do it any favors.
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

We all have new idles to bring us together anyway
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

"whatever is going on in DM is beyond the pale"
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Jorge
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Jorge »

Aunt_Claire_Foy wrote: I wouldn't call it a highlight necessarily. The guy generalizes recording styles saying things like "what people don't realize..." Woah. Insider information!
He didn't say "what people don't realize," but I think he is trying to clearly explain things to someone with no music recording experience (me). He didn't write that for RM, I just shared it
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Jaeti
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Jaeti »

Aunt_Claire_Foy wrote:
bodysnatcher wrote:
stip wrote:
Jorge wrote:
stip wrote:
Jorge wrote:I asked my friend Cass who is a multiple Grammy Award winning producer what he thought of the drum sound debacle. Specifically I asked if he thinks the drums are real. If you're interested in what a stranger to Pearl Jam who is very studio-knowledgeable has to say, this was his take:
Spoiler: show
ok having a listen

oh god that is a horribleeeee drum sound isn't it

first impressions are that that's the real snare, because it's so honky and ringy - if they were gonna fully replace they'd choose a way better one

One thing about rock drums is that they are like, inSANELY edited, quantized, moved around, crossfaded, leveled, copied around usually. Like I've never seen more editing than on rock/metal sessions... ever

sounds like the fill in the intro snare is copied over or some weird edit is happening there at least

i don't really know pearl jams' normal drum sound but this is very weird

it's like they've tried to go in between garagy noisy grunge and then modern punchy bring me the horizon stuff

and landed in shit territory

I'd blame the mixer more, first haha

so there's an interesting thing nowadays - in order to get that super punchy post paramore like extreme compression kinda radio metal sound, you can't really record cymbals and hats at the same time

cos then you can't compress the snare and toms and room as much as you need, or it's just nuclear

so often for these records they have to separately track hats and cymbals

but that squeezes the life out of a proper like chad smith kinda performance

but yeah, travis barker has popularized this very triggered, super tight, ultra compressed drum sound that sounds fat as hell, and rock and pop

and it makes old rock musicians feel weedy in comparison to the current landscape, so mixers do weird shit like this

tryna get eddie to sound like olivia rodrigo
how many grammy’s? because I wont click on a spoiler for any less than 3
One regular Grammy and one Latin Grammy :(
better just summarize it for me then
stop asking someone for a summarization of a post might be the highlight of this thread
Someone would also argue that the process of recording is diminishing returns at this point - literally, and figuratively - because music is monetized on tour, not on record, so the investment into a consistent product so it can be played across multiple mediums really doesn't matter.
Interesting. Wouldn't have thought of it this way, but makes some sense.
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

Jorge wrote:
Aunt_Claire_Foy wrote: I wouldn't call it a highlight necessarily. The guy generalizes recording styles saying things like "what people don't realize..." Woah. Insider information!
He didn't say "what people don't realize," but I think he is trying to clearly explain things to someone with no music recording experience (me). He didn't write that for RM, I just shared it
I appreciated it, for sure, even if he is only talented enough to have won two grammys
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

as long-suffering fans of Pearl Jam, we all won grammys, in a way
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

this has settled pretty comfortably into a 4 for me, and I've reached the one to two listens a day . I don't picture it bumping up to a 5, but it probably wouldn't drop to a 3 unless the rest of the album is so strong it diminishes DM by association

I am looking forward to that Josh Evans mix. I simply don't hear what the issue with the drums are (which I'm not denying are potentially there. I just don't track them) and wonder if a different mix will reveal it
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

Ms Harmless wrote:as long-suffering fans of Pearl Jam, we all won grammys, in a way
or at least a CLIO
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oneway23
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by oneway23 »

A firm three for me...no more, no less....It's a good, solid, sturdy, late-career Pearl Jam song, and that's no back-handed compliment.
To be honest, post-initial excitement, I'm not really sure whether or not it's any better or worse than SuperChud CokeSpoon.

Only the full album and its place within will show where it finally lands for me.
We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

SBWM is the better song, but they're also doing pretty different things.
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bada
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by bada »

I'm glad we concluded the drumming debate so we can go back to the more interesting territory of posting number ranks.
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

bada wrote:I'm glad we concluded the drumming debate so we can go back to the more interesting territory of posting number ranks.
Lets rank matt's drum sound on each of their albums!
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

I have lowered my expectations from pearl jam 33 years into it. Yes.
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

stip wrote:
bada wrote:I'm glad we concluded the drumming debate so we can go back to the more interesting territory of posting number ranks.
Lets rank matt's drum sound on each of their albums!
Riot Act
Binaural

everything else
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

The drum into on grievance sounds soooooooo much better than the drum intro to DM and its all on the toms. In my opinion.
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