Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[DrSelker]

The Kid A swapped with PJ titles was hilarious, kudos to everyone who chimed in

[Monkey_Driven]

All this Swift/Bieber context is gross/hysterical. So much How Vedder Got His Groove Back energy around the very inception of this album.

Part of it is media creation. Another part is Ed just being into what his kids like.

The marketing around this is likely to be similar to the S/T rollout, I'd imagine. Pearl Jam is back to rocking again (and sounding like shit with bad production)!

You think? If they chose a producer who’s largely known for A)developing young pop artists and B)Fostering speedy recording sessions for aging rockers, I think that’s basically what the media has to work with

Not every decision is part of a nefarious plot to undermine the established ethos and credibility of the band. Their decision to go with Watt as a producer likely had several motivating factors (his familiarity with the catalog, previous work with Ed, etc.). Maybe his penchant for working fast was a big reason too, considering it took 7 years to make Gigaton.

I doubt the majority of the coverage of this album will take the time or energy to discuss these nuances.

[Jaeti]

First review is in..MOJO

I think I hear Ed singing "I'll be the last one standing" in the last song on the metal door leak. I've been looking forward to this song the most. Got to Give, it is.

I know the part you're talking about, and now I'm gonna have to go listen and see if that's what I hear, too.

It's at 3:34. I can hear "last one standing" to begin that clip.

Yep, indeed. So that's Got to Give.

I love the sound of it, but I had really been hoping that that clip was, like, 60-90 seconds from the end of the album in Setting Sun, and the song is actually lifting off into space at that moment as the record closes.

Can't wait for this.

[Release_Me]

Me too, can't wait!

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Evvo]

“We used to dance, we had our own scene” sounds like a Hold Steady lyrics. And that’s no bad thing.

[Monkey_Driven]

All this Swift/Bieber context is gross/hysterical. So much How Vedder Got His Groove Back energy around the very inception of this album.

Part of it is media creation. Another part is Ed just being into what his kids like.

The marketing around this is likely to be similar to the S/T rollout, I'd imagine. Pearl Jam is back to rocking again (and sounding like shit with bad production)!

You think? If they chose a producer who’s largely known for A)developing young pop artists and B)Fostering speedy recording sessions for aging rockers, I think that’s basically what the media has to work with

Not every decision is part of a nefarious plot to undermine the established ethos and credibility of the band. Their decision to go with Watt as a producer likely had several motivating factors (his familiarity with the catalog, previous work with Ed, etc.). Maybe his penchant for working fast was a big reason too, considering it took 7 years to make Gigaton.

I doubt the majority of the coverage of this album will take the time or energy to discuss these nuances.

What you’ve characterized as catalog familiarity, established working relationship with the band leader, and speedy turnaround are all more likely to translate as creative liabilities rather than assets.

We'll see!

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Strat]

All this Swift/Bieber context is gross/hysterical. So much How Vedder Got His Groove Back energy around the very inception of this album.

Part of it is media creation. Another part is Ed just being into what his kids like.

The marketing around this is likely to be similar to the S/T rollout, I'd imagine. Pearl Jam is back to rocking again (and sounding like shit with bad production)!

You think? If they chose a producer who’s largely known for A)developing young pop artists and B)Fostering speedy recording sessions for aging rockers, I think that’s basically what the media has to work with

Not every decision is part of a nefarious plot to undermine the established ethos and credibility of the band. Their decision to go with Watt as a producer likely had several motivating factors (his familiarity with the catalog, previous work with Ed, etc.). Maybe his penchant for working fast was a big reason too, considering it took 7 years to make Gigaton.

I doubt the majority of the coverage of this album will take the time or energy to discuss these nuances.

What you’ve characterized as catalog familiarity, established working relationship with the band leader, and speedy turnaround are all more likely to translate as creative liabilities rather than assets.

Why is working fast/speedy turnaround immediately a negative in your eyes? They have labored over material that wasn't great, and they have recorded quickly with good results. It can be good or bad. Your brain block centered around hatred for Watt is WIIIIIIIIIIILD.

[Anders]

https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/sto ... terviewed/

“Stone [Gossard, guitarist] had a great riff,” bassist Jeff Ament says of opening track Scared Of Fear, a maelstrom caught on Pearl Jam’s first day with Watt in April 2021, in the basement studio of the producer’s Beverly Hills house. “It was just getting in a circle and throwing things out: ‘Let’s do this.’ Within five minutes of having the bones of the arrangement, Ed came up with the crux of the lyrics” – a feral summation of endangered joys and communion that could be about love, friendship or, in the chorus, the old Seattle (“We used to laugh/We used to sing/We used to dance/We used to believe”).

Dark Matter is Pearl Jam’s most effective resolution since 1996’s seriously eclectic No Code of their sometimes dissonant ambitions as songwriters: the commercially immediate hard rock classicism of Ten and 2006’s Pearl Jam; and that wilful experimental tilt in texture and reflection on records like 2000’s Binaural. But this is a famously idealistic band now in late-middle age, assessing unfinished business and not happy about it. “I’m feeling done in, it’s rather stunning,” Vedder snaps in Running, a two-minute Fugazi style blitz.

The singer, though, won’t give up on the rescue and renewal in music. Asked about the title character in Waiting For Stevie, a mighty wall of Ten guitars glazed with bright, harmony vocals, Vedder describes “a young girl not feeling appreciated by her peers, who finds relief and connection in music at a show,” noting his own teenage salvation when he first heard The Who’s 1973 Mod opera Quadrophenia. “I felt more understood by that record than by teachers, family or peers.”

Plenty to get excited about here, if one were so inclined.

There is, and I am.

Loved the Stone riff part.

[Strat]

https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/sto ... terviewed/

“Stone [Gossard, guitarist] had a great riff,” bassist Jeff Ament says of opening track Scared Of Fear, a maelstrom caught on Pearl Jam’s first day with Watt in April 2021, in the basement studio of the producer’s Beverly Hills house. “It was just getting in a circle and throwing things out: ‘Let’s do this.’ Within five minutes of having the bones of the arrangement, Ed came up with the crux of the lyrics” – a feral summation of endangered joys and communion that could be about love, friendship or, in the chorus, the old Seattle (“We used to laugh/We used to sing/We used to dance/We used to believe”).

Dark Matter is Pearl Jam’s most effective resolution since 1996’s seriously eclectic No Code of their sometimes dissonant ambitions as songwriters: the commercially immediate hard rock classicism of Ten and 2006’s Pearl Jam; and that wilful experimental tilt in texture and reflection on records like 2000’s Binaural. But this is a famously idealistic band now in late-middle age, assessing unfinished business and not happy about it. “I’m feeling done in, it’s rather stunning,” Vedder snaps in Running, a two-minute Fugazi style blitz.

The singer, though, won’t give up on the rescue and renewal in music. Asked about the title character in Waiting For Stevie, a mighty wall of Ten guitars glazed with bright, harmony vocals, Vedder describes “a young girl not feeling appreciated by her peers, who finds relief and connection in music at a show,” noting his own teenage salvation when he first heard The Who’s 1973 Mod opera Quadrophenia. “I felt more understood by that record than by teachers, family or peers.”

Plenty to get excited about here, if one were so inclined.

There is, and I am.

Loved the Stone riff part.

Okay this excites me.

Trag hates Ed talkign about T Swift and his kids? Man he really his cynical and grumpy!

[digster]

Why is working fast/speedy turnaround immediately a negative in your eyes? They have labored over material that wasn't great, and they have recorded quickly with good results. It can be good or bad. Your brain block centered around hatred for Watt is WIIIIIIIIIIILD.

I mean, at least in this century, have they? What's the example of them meaning to do something super quick and it resulting in a good album? Maybe Riot Act? Since then, we've had S/T, Backspacer, LB and Gigaton, and I feel like the two they took their time on ended up far better than when they were super-focused on getting it done quickly. This could end up being the exception that breaks the rule, but I think there's enough examples this century pointing towards taking time being beneficial for them.

[Fattie_Vedder]

“The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax”

Is a particularly poignant and beautiful piece of descriptive literature.

[Ms Harmless]

All this Swift/Bieber context is gross/hysterical. So much How Vedder Got His Groove Back energy around the very inception of this album.

Pearl Jam journalism has always been embarrassing and that was never gonna stop now

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[RockPusher]

“The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax”

Is a particularly poignant and beautiful piece of descriptive literature.

Kid A is a particularly poignant and beautiful piece of music. Also, Pitchfork embodies all to hate and love about critics.

[RockPusher]

I’m just speculating how this will turn out, but I trust my instincts

You know what you like and you like what you know.

[Ms Harmless]

There’s another element about this that we’ve only just touched on, which is that all this apparent thirst for commercial relevancy potentially serves to undermine whatever proletariat-oriented lyrics Ed is singing. I’m curious how even the committed Dark Matter lovers will find his words actually connect this time around.

it's like I've said in the past

Ed is a liberal democrat, not far left socialist; he hasn't dismantled systems, he fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and put a lot of money into charities

he probably can't spell Proletariat, and that's OK

PJ did a lot of good stuff but I never in my adult life saw them as at the forefront of musical liberation politics and protest

they were, and are, a bunch of decent (flawed) people who held pretty good values, and still are

Ed will continually call out "the rich" as long as there exist people richer than him, which I find pretty typical of people like him, and kind of amusing, but really, he DOES have better values than Trump, Musk and their ilk, so in the grand scheme of things, I don't feel like he's actively lying to me

[Ms Harmless]

I’m just speculating how this will turn out, but I trust my instincts

You know what you like and you like what you know.

it's time to trust your instincts... close your eyes... and leap

it's time to try defying gravity

[scrub12]

Album isn’t even out for another 35 days or whatever and we’re getting reviews? Is that normal?

Give us another single already.