Dark Matter Reviews

[oneway23]

Upon the release of its advance singles “Dark Matter” and “Running,” this seemed to foreshadow a misfire full of clunky attempts at bygone ferocity. Those tracks function as the now-requisite ragers on later Pearl Jam albums — placeholders, also-rans, the band straining but floundering. Elsewhere, focusing on the power of Cameron’s drums, big guitar leads, and Vedder’s immortal vocals actually results in some convincing arguments for a bread-and-butter Pearl Jam collection. Opener “Scared Of Fear” is a nimble earworm, and mid-paced rockers like “Wreckage” are a lived-in continuation of Pearl Jam’s particular brand of grandeur. “Setting Sun” is a raggedly majestic closer. As ever, there are gems for the obsessives to find if they want.

This has me cautiously optimistic that I will find song things to love about this album because I agree about this statement about Dark Matter and Running.

Sounds like the singles are the two songs to prove the point that they can still rock very hard and the rest is more solid bread and butter Pearl Jam (which is what I enjoy)

Yes Mike..I'm pretty sure we've felt similarly about the two so far...The rest gives me hope.

[Strat]

the Waiting for Stevie thing is really interesting to me.

Sounds like Ed/watt worked up that idea during Earthling but the reviews keep likening it to State of love and trust/breath. Now, Ed is not that type of guitar player.

So....WHAT GIVES.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

So it’s avocado with shitty production.

I have not gotten Avocado vibes from any of those reviews.

[liebzz]

From the interviews and song titles, I thought initially we were getting a Backspacer trying to find Ten energy vibe, but after the reviews, I think this is leaning more towards a bit more cooked album with a new vibe or at least an effort to meld pissed off with contemplation? I basically have no idea what to make of it until I guess I hear it. Wreckage is apparently a wreck to try to describe. That might very well be a microcosm for all these reviews trying like hell to get to the essence of the album.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

is S/T the standard you’d hold up as the archetype pearl jam record?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

it was marketed that way, and I can see that. But so was Yield. It's a middle of the pack album for me (so is S/T - I have them placed next to each other). If I had to pick a Pearl Jam album that is the most likely to capture the totality of the band's essence I might choose Yield.

No, I'd choose Vs. But Yield might be my number 2.

[Strat]

A few reviewers have compared it in some ways to No Code. Very curious as to why......

production aside....does it vary in song type the same way No Code does?

[digster]

is S/T the standard you’d hold up as the archetype pearl jam record?

I think it’s definitely (and very intentionally) a “bread and butter” PJ record.

Yeah, in terms of how the band is framing this record S/T is by far the easiest comparison. All of the "we're rocking again," and the descriptions of how Watt has helped them plug back in to the feel they had on their first records, all of that is pretty much how S/T was pushed. I think that album ended up being more complicated than how it was marketed, and from that review, it sounds like that is somewhat true about Dark Matter as well.

[stip]

That's all true. But it's also pretty much how Yield was marketed and presented as well. Yield is the last pearl jam album to be unequivocally canonized by the fan base, but this was exactly how it was described as well. The 'return to form' pearl jam meme stems from Yield. And that's probably not an accurate assessment of what Yield is as an album (or S/T, though it's probably a little more on point there), but it is how we were asked to receive it

[Strat]

That's all true. But it's also pretty much how Yield was marketed and presented as well. Yield is the last pearl jam album to be unequivocally canonized by the fan base, but this was exactly how it was described as well. The 'return to form' pearl jam meme stems from Yield. And that's probably not an accurate assessment of what Yield is as an album (or S/T, though it's probably a little more on point there), but it is how we were asked to receive it

S/T maybe feels more that way because it comes on the heels of Binaural/Riot Act.

Yield definitely was the first "Return to form"

[Val]

I adore Yield but I'm pretty indifferent towards S/T.

To my ears these two are incomparable.

[digster]

That's all true. But it's also pretty much how Yield was marketed and presented as well. Yield is the last pearl jam album to be unequivocally canonized by the fan base, but this was exactly how it was described as well. The 'return to form' pearl jam meme stems from Yield. And that's probably not an accurate assessment of what Yield is as an album (or S/T, though it's probably a little more on point there), but it is how we were asked to receive it

S/T maybe feels more that way because it comes on the heels of Binaural/Riot Act.

Yield definitely was the first "Return to form"

The way this reminds of S/T is the push that they're writing songs like they used to; that mirrors what happened with S/T, which was framed as their attempt to make a straight-up rock album after years of making weird albums (Rolling Stone literally put them on the cover with the headline "Pearl Jam Return From Exile.") Stip seems to think this was the exact thing that happened for Yield; I can't disprove a negative and don't doubt that there was some of that around, but I think anyone who was a fan when S/T came out remembers how heavily that storyline was pushed.

And I think that mirrors what we're seeing now; Pearl Jam made a 'difficult' record with Gigaton (I don't really think that album is difficult, but I wouldn't say Binaural and Riot Act are super difficult in the grand scheme of things either), and are now trying to make it clear that they made an album that proves they can still rock like they always have. I don't think that's a positive or a negative thing; what matters is the music, but that's what the band seems to think about it.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Strat]

That's all true. But it's also pretty much how Yield was marketed and presented as well. Yield is the last pearl jam album to be unequivocally canonized by the fan base, but this was exactly how it was described as well. The 'return to form' pearl jam meme stems from Yield. And that's probably not an accurate assessment of what Yield is as an album (or S/T, though it's probably a little more on point there), but it is how we were asked to receive it

S/T maybe feels more that way because it comes on the heels of Binaural/Riot Act.

Yield definitely was the first "Return to form"

The S/T push mirrors what we're seeing with this new album; a push that "we're writing songs like we wrote on Vs.;" that mirrors what happened with S/T, which was framed as their attempt to make a straight-up rock album after using of making weird albums (Rolling Stone literally put them on the cover with the headline "Pearl Jam Return From Exile.") Stip seems to think this was the exact thing that happened for Yield; I can't disprove a negative and don't doubt that there was some of that around, but I think anyone who was a fan when S/T came out remembers how heavily that storyline was pushed.

And I think that mirrors what we're seeing now; Pearl Jam made a 'difficult' record with Gigaton (I don't really think that album is difficult, but I wouldn't say Binaural and Riot Act are super difficult in the grand scheme of things either), and are now trying to make it clear that they made an album that proves they can still rock like they always have. I don't think that's a positive or a negative thing; what matters is the music, but that's what the band seems to think about it.

Yield certainly was.

Radio was excited again. A new video, big tour with ticketmaste,r interviews.

[stip]

agreed, but this the third iteration of that cycle

No Code into Yield

Riot Act into S/T

Gigaton into Dark Matter

weirdly Binaural was not initially presented as a challenging album.

[joostone]

Here's the Uncut review!!

[stip]

That's all true. But it's also pretty much how Yield was marketed and presented as well. Yield is the last pearl jam album to be unequivocally canonized by the fan base, but this was exactly how it was described as well. The 'return to form' pearl jam meme stems from Yield. And that's probably not an accurate assessment of what Yield is as an album (or S/T, though it's probably a little more on point there), but it is how we were asked to receive it

S/T maybe feels more that way because it comes on the heels of Binaural/Riot Act.

Yield definitely was the first "Return to form"

Agreed Yield was the first to be marketed that way, but it still had a good amount of experimentation going on. Doesn’t sound like that’s the case here.

We shall see. Some of that might be that the deeper you get in the harder it is to say you've experimented since the scope of possible catalog referents is so much greater. Not that it's impossible