Dark Matter (song)

[Ms Harmless]

Guys, you are all kind of proving our points here by talking about how much better it is on Apple music.

OTHER THAN SPATIAL AUDIO/ATMOS - the band doesnt deliver different mixes to different streaming services. If you are listening to just standard apple and thinking it sounds better, that is because apple streams at higher quality lossless rates. Same with Tidal.

Spotify sucks and streams at the lowest quality, even if you bump it in your settings to 320KBS it is still lesser quality. Spotify music is much more compressed and delivered at a lower quality.

so, yess, compression and sound quality and how you listen to music matters.

Also, i got an email saying my Tidal Hi Fi subscription is lowering to $10.99/month. You guys should switch. They also pay artists more.

I just signed up for the hifi Tidal. Compared the mixes between Apple Music and Tidal under my AirPods Max.

Tidal wins by a mile.

Well fuck, I thought I could just be happy with my Apple Music trial once this comes out.

you can do anything you set your mind to, I know I will be

[Jaeti]

This seems like a great opportunity for us to imagine how good Infallible would be if it had Dark Matter's tone and energy.

Kinda thought about this the other day when I gave Lightning Bolt a full listen. That album has a decent peak for me in the middle, aside from Infallible being even more disappointing that the last time I'd heard it. Tuesday's experience was:

Sirens - 4
Lightning Bolt - 4
Infallible - 2.5
Pendulum - 4
Swallowed Whole – 4

[stip]

This seems like a great opportunity for us to imagine how good Infallible would be if it had Dark Matter's tone and energy.

Kinda thought about this the other day when I gave Lightning Bolt a full listen. That album has a decent peak for me in the middle, aside from Infallible being even more disappointing that the last time I'd heard it. Tuesday's experience was:

Sirens - 4
Lightning Bolt - 4
Infallible - 2.5
Pendulum - 4
Swallowed Whole – 4

I do like that run of songs. Listening with my 2024 ears I'd go

Sirens - 4
L-bolt - 4.5
Infallible 3
Pendulum -4
Swallowed Whole - 3.5

But all of these songs needed to be recorded at a different time where they could have breathed. Yield would have been great for Sirens and Lightning Bolt. Even Swallowed Whole, though the openeness of into the wild feels more appropriate. Pendulum is asking for some of Binaural or Riot Act's atmosphere (it's a slightly different song depending on where it goes0.

Infallible is a trickier beast. It's really aiming for something optimistic and transformative in the chorus in a way that's unusually explicit, even for Pearl Jam. Even a song like Seven Oclock hides this in its dreamscape chorus. I think some people will just be a little turned off by this regardless. Heart on sleeve/saying the quiet part loud Pearl Jam isn't for everyone, even if it's an authentic reflection of their worldview. But it would land better if the verses were a bit scuzzier. Stone's part is interesting and unusual, but just a little too clean.

[stip]

Marker is the closest analog in the catalog to Infallible, now that I think about it, but I think Marker fails to hit this balance in its actual final product as well, at least with the benefit of hindsight. it's one of the songs I think S/T's production does a particular disservice to

[stip]

My Lightning Bolt experience actually changed what I want out of a pearl jam record a little bit. It was so exhausting loving an album people were not nearly as into (and in some cases actively running down as loudly as possible), that it's probably more important to me that Pearl Jam delivers an album the community loves (at least this wing of it) than one I love.

Gigaton helped split that difference. I hope DM does as well.

[Ms Harmless]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

[Jaeti]

Marker is the closest analog in the catalog to Infallible, now that I think about it, but I think Marker fails to hit this balance in its actual final product as well, at least with the benefit of hindsight. it's one of the songs I think S/T's production does a particular disservice to

I think it was Ms Harmless a few days ago who pointed out Infallible as the worst offender of their "minor-key verse, major-key chorus" songs (I might be messing up the terminology a bit, just trying to paraphrase from memory; and maybe Green Disease was mentioned, too...?). And I immediately thought of Marker as the one that really, really works for me.

[Jaeti]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

I had not listened to Backspacer straight through for a long, long time, until finally doing it last week during my pre-Dark Matter, full-catalog march. Taken altogether in 36-consecutive minutes, I appreciated it in a way I probably hadn't since 2009 when I was just thrilled to have a new album. Got Some was cool in a way I hadn't thought in a long time, as was The Fixer, and yeah, even Supersonic felt right enough for the three minutes it was on.

[Ms Harmless]

Marker is the closest analog in the catalog to Infallible, now that I think about it, but I think Marker fails to hit this balance in its actual final product as well, at least with the benefit of hindsight. it's one of the songs I think S/T's production does a particular disservice to

I think it was Ms Harmless a few days ago who pointed out Infallible as the worst offender of their "minor-key verse, major-key chorus" songs (I might be messing up the terminology a bit, just trying to paraphrase from memory; and maybe Green Disease was mentioned, too...?). And I immediately thought of Marker as the one that really, really works for me.

it was me yes, Green Disease was (I think) the first song to do it, but it's one of those "it was a good idea at the time" things because I love GD, even though at first I raised my eyebrow at the chorus; I also really like Marker, I think it did that change pretty successfully as well; all in all it's just one of those dead horses that Ed has for some reason decided he must keep flogging (though thankfully Gigaton didn't have one that stuck out to me as grating)

[Ms Harmless]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

I had not listened to Backspacer straight through for a long, long time, until finally doing it last week during my pre-Dark Matter, full-catalog march. Taken altogether in 36-consecutive minutes, I appreciated it in a way I probably hadn't since 2009 when I was just thrilled to have a new album. Got Some was cool in a way I hadn't thought in a long time, as was The Fixer, and yeah, even Supersonic felt right enough for the three minutes it was on.

talking about that flipping Fixer / Target video the other day in that thread made me realise how much it was *it* that put me off the song, not the song itself, which I still maintain (as I did the day it was released) is a good stab at 80's girly pop-punk

[Ms Harmless]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

I had not listened to Backspacer straight through for a long, long time, until finally doing it last week during my pre-Dark Matter, full-catalog march. Taken altogether in 36-consecutive minutes, I appreciated it in a way I probably hadn't since 2009 when I was just thrilled to have a new album. Got Some was cool in a way I hadn't thought in a long time, as was The Fixer, and yeah, even Supersonic felt right enough for the three minutes it was on.

talking about that flipping Fixer / Target video the other day in that thread made me realise how much it was *it* that put me off the song, not the song itself, which I still maintain (as I did the day it was released) is a good stab at 80's girly pop-punk

the "dropping bombs / getting out" stuff in Got Some seems weird given that the song presents itself as just a fun song about rock 'n roll, but if I see it all as metaphor for proaction, it's all good; I always liked it musically

[E.H. Ruddock]

I, too, listened to Backspacer all the way through the other day. Was surprised at how much I enjoyed tracks 1-5 together, but then for me it just shits the bed. Amongst the Waves and Unthought Known are just bad songs.

[Clem Halibut]

Great songs are still great songs on bad speakers.

[RockPusher]

At this point I'm only listening to this in relative hifi on Qobuz or in Homerian with the kids. I still love the hell out of it. I'm having a hard time scoring it with the 5-star thing, because it hits me harder than Quick Escape, to which I assigned a 5, and yet I think that ultimately DM is a 4.5, which means I may have to grade Gigaton on a new curve. I am outrageously curious about the context for this song. Like many here, I don't expect it to be an album standout, but if that's true this could easily turn out to be one of my very favorite Pearl Jam albums and that thought is so wild I dare not think it too much...

[stip]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

Something's got to be at the bottom. I still like No Code and Binaural a lot, even if that's where they are.

[E.H. Ruddock]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

Something's got to be at the bottom. I still like No Code and Binaural a lot, even if that's where they are.

I just cancelled my book order

[stip]

this could easily turn out to be one of my very favorite Pearl Jam albums and that thought is so wild I dare not think it too much...

That's what Eddie thinks, and he is never wrong.

[RockPusher]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

Something's got to be at the bottom. I still like No Code and Binaural a lot, even if that's where they are.

I just cancelled my book order

Ha! You do realize, he loves those albums, and for the same reasons as you. He just ranks them differently because of this weird thing called personal taste.

[stip]

it really is soul destroying trying to love things the majority of people around you are shitting on; I spent a long time wondering about the extent to which that happened to me and Backspacer; I decided it had, and reevaluated; I'm much more into the album than I was years ago, and I'm working on forgiving Supersonic for just not being my type of thing; I've done similar with Lightning Bolt but ultimately it's still bottom of the pack for me

Something's got to be at the bottom. I still like No Code and Binaural a lot, even if that's where they are.

I just cancelled my book order

Weirdly (or perhaps not) I think the best chapters are on the records I have towards the bottom of my own rankings. They are all interesting albums doing interesting things, but the musical expression of those things doesn't align with what I want from Pearl Jam. I had the hardest time writing about Ten and Vitalogy.

We generally stripped evaluations based on personal preference out of the narrative. That way you know the central thesis that Lightning Bolt is the pinnacle of both pearl jam's career and rock music generally is in no way biased.

[stip]

I've got pearl jam on shuffle at work in the background. Right now Animal is on. Animal is a better song than Dark Matter. But what does the future hold?