Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[blueviper]

I am still writing my TSIS piece. It is absurdly long and needs editing. I have 4 songs to go. I think parts of it are pretty great. I think parts are being written before I have a full read on a song and I just hope I can find a way to make them better, or at least okay. I should have it up tomorrow night.

I'm just coming in here to share that I just finished writing about Waiting for Stevie. I counted once. I have written over 200,000 words on Pearl Jam for TSIS. I wrote the book. And somehow what I wrote about this stupid song feels like the most intensely personal, or at least emotional, thing I have ever written about this band. I still genuinely cannot believe the reaction I had to this song.

Can’t wait to read your review!

[blueviper]

It is odd to consider , but I bought 10 at 16 in 1991. I hadn't heard a single track.
The stick on the cassette said something about Mother LoveBone and Green River. I put it in the tape neck of my Jeep and that was it. In those early years they were super heros. I was inspired to write . I was inspired to pick up the guitar. Life moved forward they were there at every step.
Something strange happened though as we grew old and I grew older their capes and masks came off. We were peers. They did their thing well. I did my thing well. We were part of the same story. They went to work . I went to work . They had struggles as did I. In 1991 listening and watching those guys I wanted nothing more than to be on the largest stages of the world. That quickly faded and I was elated to be just a guy carving out a path for himself and his family. I no longer looked up to them. They were distant brothers.
Ed has beautifully spoke of the communal nature of music and how we are all apart of that Pearl Jam thing. The thing is he believes this it comes through in this album. He is not protecting himself on this he is opening his heart wide open much like the letters he receives from his fans. I'm really proud of him for this. I mean he could mail it in and we would still probably be here. Instead he went all in. Like I did 34 years ago. The thing there are things on here I'm looking at you outro to setting sun that live is gonna be a big ask. He will struggle. It will be again the crowd that moves this forward.

Great take.

[stip]

Some have said best since Riot Act. Right now, I tend to agree. With that in mind, this album feels like what Avocado was trying to achieve but didn’t quite accomplish.

ST was too focused on responding to/being an alternative to Riot Act (Binaural to a lesser extent) to do what DM does. DM feels free to follow muses in a way the more consciously purposefully ST couldnt

[stip]

I am still writing my TSIS piece. It is absurdly long and needs editing. I have 4 songs to go. I think parts of it are pretty great. I think parts are being written before I have a full read on a song and I just hope I can find a way to make them better, or at least okay. I should have it up tomorrow night.

I'm just coming in here to share that I just finished writing about Waiting for Stevie. I counted once. I have written over 200,000 words on Pearl Jam for TSIS. I wrote the book. And somehow what I wrote about this stupid song feels like the most intensely personal, or at least emotional, thing I have ever written about this band. I still genuinely cannot believe the reaction I had to this song.

Can’t wait to read your review!

itll be up by noon I think

[Strat]

Im in love.

[EBowie]

Some have said best since Riot Act. Right now, I tend to agree. With that in mind, this album feels like what Avocado was trying to achieve but didn’t quite accomplish.

ST was too focused on responding to/being an alternative to Riot Act (Binaural to a lesser extent) to do what DM does. DM feels free to follow muses in a way the more consciously purposefully ST couldnt

Yeah Avocado felt like them trying to be Pearl Jam. This one feels like them just being.

(and I don’t hate Avocado by any means)

[The Argonaut]

I listened to the album this morning. It is so much way better than those horrid singles that came out over the last few weeks. And so much better than that horrid Gigaton. I might actually listen to this album again someday, I enjoyed a lot of it

[BootsToAsses]

I listened the vinyl yesterday and it sounded phenomenal to me. That was definitely the best listening experience I've had so far.

I tend to mostly use my Sony XM3 headphones and the album sounds great through them, especially the Atmos even though I won't be getting the full Atmos experience with them.

I'm listening now through Hifiman Edition XS and although it sounds great I think I actually prefer the Sony XM3.

I instantly love this record. The last time I felt like that was Riot Act. There's so much in every song, I can't begin to unpack. You fine folks have already expressed it better than I ever could.

Current song rankings:

Fantastic/top tier:
Won't Tell
Upper Hand
Running (this is exactly what it should be and it's placement on the record is perfect)
Got To Give
Setting Sun

Really good:
Scared of Fear
Wreckage
Dark Matter
Waiting For Stevie

Good:
React, Respond
Something Special

The album flies by, too. It doesn't feel like a chore in any way and I have no desire to skip any songs.

[blueviper]

I was looking at target to see how many CDs were left at the nearby store and it said 4. Then I noticed if I walk in and go to electronics area and pick it up myself it’s 17.99. If I have a target person do it it’s 15.99

I had my wife stick it in her target cart and we’ll pick it up later. How times have changed

[dad]

I was looking at target to see how many CDs were left at the nearby store and it said 4. Then I noticed if I walk in and go to electronics area and pick it up myself it’s 17.99. If I have a target person do it it’s 15.99

I had my wife stick it in her target cart and we’ll pick it up later. How times have changed

heck yeah, get that target pickup.

[digster]

So, after an evening and a morning with this album in my ears, I’m finally started to feel the songs settle in. It’s hard to have a first gut reaction with a first listen of any band, much less one I have this much background with.

What’s more, this was definitely a different kind of record than I was expecting, mostly in good ways (the description of it being “Yield meets Backspacer” that got tossed around before release makes a lot more sense to me now).

Overall, I really like it….I felt like the album I thought of the most, in terms of the place in a band’s catalog if not in sound, is Bruce’s Born in the U.S.A. That’s an album that keeps the band’s personality and strengths, but applies a really shiny coat of paint on the proceedings (both in the songwriting and the production) to make it sparkle.

I think PJ tried to (sort of) do that on Backspacer and LB, and while I don’t know if Dark Matter is the kind of album they were trying to make when they did those records, it’s what I would have hoped for if I heard those albums described.

Some really (really) scattered thoughts;

- I think Ed’s writing on this record is great, he opts to keep it simple here, and it may be the best version of that kind of writing in the catalog.
- Jeff remains this band’s secret weapon.
- They weren’t kidding about the 80s and Cure-esque influences on this record; I feel like sometimes those kinds of statements are window dressing, but it’s really overt, and feels surprisingly natural. I feel like you need a lot of nimbleness and airiness in your rhythm section to make something like that work, and airiness is not something I would have said Matt had in spades. But on stuff like Won’t Tell, he totally sells it.
- Running still doesn’t do much for me, but Dark Matter worked way better in the context of the album.
- Highlights for me were React, Respond, Wreckage and Upper Hand, but really the whole run from React through Upper Hand made me pretty giddy. Wreckage is maybe a five-star career highlight for them, and easily for me their most successful attempt at retaining what’s great about them with a pop sheen. Eddie spiraling downward while singing the refrain at the end puts a pretty massive lump in your throat.
- I’m having that problem where a song (in this case, Stevie) sounds exactly like another song, and I can’t place what it is.
- In terms of things that didn’t land, I did feel like it was pretty top-heavy; all the songs that really grabbed me showed up in the first half, and particularly after Stevie, I felt like it dropped off (although being top-heavy is an issue on quite a few PJ albums, even some great ones).
- The production has become a bit of a joke, but it is something that hurts the record when it didn’t have to. It’s not that it makes any good song bad, but it does make every song feel very surface-level. I think one reason some of their past records have persevered is that you can go back months, years and decades later and hear and feel new things ensconced within it. I hope that I’m going to want to revisit these songs a year from now as much as a day from now (though I guess that’s a problem for a year from now).

But it's great to see them in the midst of an R.E.M.-esque comeback, and it's even better to get to hear the results. Hopefully as the days go on, with more listens, this rambling gets a bit more coherent.

[Vindicator]

I woke up today with so many melodies in my head. Upper Hand outro and Wreckage mostly.

Just a fantastic album. So many songs that I could see myself giving 5 stars. It's one of their most consistent albums ever. No skips here, its all great.

[WaitingForBluey]

But seriously? Wait until my 10c black vinyl arrives on Monday... or just rip it open an enjoy the orange & black a-blazing...

https://twitter.com/HomeForBed/status/1 ... 7122112928


Dammit! How the hell do I embed a tweet?

[Arthur Morgan]

Taking my sons camping this weekend. We will see how DM holds up in nature!


On a side note, some of my favorite PJ moments 30 years ago were running around in the woods with the songs from Ten, Vs and Vitalogy in my head. Now 30 years later I will be running around the woods with my sons with DM in my head. Kinda cool.

[Tj]

I was thinking about being loved feeling loved and receiving love and also giving it. The conective thread that connects all 12 of these albums.
Waiting for Stevie is almost the culmination of all that the final act.

[washing machine]

Took this bad boy out for a Saturday morning mowing session today.

For mowing purposes, it surprisingly ranks higher than the likes of Yield, Vs, or Binaural but it still can't stack up to the ultimate PJ energy boost, Backspacer tour bootlegs.

[stip]

Okay, posting the review. This may take more than one post

[stip]

Okay I don't want to bottom page this

[stip]

Sorry

[stip]

I know this is obnoxious