Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[Thurman Murman]

Upper Hand is climbing for me.

Songs 5, 6, and 7 might be back-to-back-to-back 5-stars. And there's at least one other 5-star song on here. Bonkers.

I'm up to six 5 star songs on this album including the three you mention above. Bonkers is putting it mildly...the entire Avocado thru LB produced one, maybe two 5 star songs in my books.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[tree_]

I heard someone mention Jill Vedder's social media praising the album and passing on love to Ed as a sign they aren't getting divorced. As a guy who lives in New England and witnessed the Tom Brady and Giselle relationship nonsense, I can attest that Jill's social media stuff means nothing.

Obviously Ed (dunno so much about Jill) is not the kind of person to publicize his divorce. I'm sure he'll go to some lengths to keep it private until he's thoroughly combed through the wreckage and begun anew.

[mikejasond]

I'm hearing a connection between the hopeful, maybe a little naive plea of "don't react, respond" and the more jaded, but wise and experienced admission of "deplore the dialogue / everybody else pays for someone else's mistake" -- and therefore sometimes reaction is necessary; it's almost like this album as a whole rides a wave (!!!!) from young expectation, to middle-aged complication, to death (Running), the legacies of hope and wisdom we want to leave behind (Something Special), to the "last one standing" (Got to Give) and the Setting Sun

it feels like a concept album of Pearl Jam busting out the gate, then growing, almost disappearing, but ultimately lasting

I took the "don't react, respond" thing to sort of be like the narrator desperately trying to do the type of thing you'd expect from counceling, to not just react in a fight in anger but take time to think and respond. (https://zenhabits.net/respond/)

But the frantic pace of the song is showing how difficult this is because of wild emotion, so it comes off more like a desperate self-plea to keep it together and not give in and make things worse.

Until Wreckage, where the narrator now legitimately no longer cares who was right because he realizes what he lost

yes to your react respond thoughts, but they need tempering with Dark Matter's thoughts, that sometimes a reaction and a riot is the only way to bring about change, even if "don't react" is wonderful advice to tell our internal selves as individuals; there's a time for everything

so yeah, Wreckage might be "the beginning of wisdom" on my wave timeline

Until now, Ive been thinking of Setting Sun as a black-esque desperate song, where the 'hopeful' parts at the end are just desperation.

But is it possible that Got to Give represents a turning point, where desperate and hurting and at a breaking point where the narrator needs to get over his wife ( or significant other) because he can't move on, what actually gives is he gives up on his anger and resentment, and decides to fight for the relationship? Unlike Wreckage where he says that he can't make her stay, in Got to Give he decides they are a team who can fight anything (In react/respond he also says "we could be fighting together instead of fighting ourselves", but the triumphant tone of Got to Give in contrast to the frantic tone of React/Respond maybe shows a change in the narrator's mindframe where he is no longer whining that they AREN'T, but determined to make it so they ARE). Like Got to Give is when he truly puts the baggage behind him and just decides instead of getting over her that he will get over himself and his self pity.

Maybe then Setting Sun IS positive, and maybe what i saw as desperate longing and bitter lamenting, is actually the narrator acknowledging with honesty the situation, becoming more enlightened, and being determined to work to put his pride behind him and fix their relationship legitimately. And maybe you can believe that might work.

Though Im still torn as even Setting Sun does have some lyrics that sound quite bitter, and "Am I the only one still hanging on?" still sounds like lamenting. And a darker interpretation is Got to Give and Setting Sun show the narrator's determination to keep his wife but it's too late, and he can't will her back to him just because he really wants it.

So you can read it either hopeful if you see the narrator's perspective or hopeless if you think the narrator is just like the "We belong together" in Black, and see the hopelessness that he does not see.

But if its the former interpretation that could mean that it is not about Eddie getting a divorce, but maybe he had marital problems and eventually fixed them, writing this album as a heightened version of this situation through the story of a couple splitting and then the narrator realizing he had to bring them back together.

[mikejasond]

(But one thing I think is hard to ignore is that this album clearly is quite connected, with lyrics and themes very consistent across it to the point it almost comes off as a concept album, and that fracturing relationships (probably romantic ones) is a major, shockingly overwhelming, theme.)

[Force Of Nature]

I heard someone mention Jill Vedder's social media praising the album and passing on love to Ed as a sign they aren't getting divorced. As a guy who lives in New England and witnessed the Tom Brady and Giselle relationship nonsense, I can attest that Jill's social media stuff means nothing.

Obviously Ed (dunno so much about Jill) is not the kind of person to publicize his divorce. I'm sure he'll go to some lengths to keep it private until he's thoroughly combed through the wreckage and begun anew.

I really can’t see this about Ed getting divorce. I get the lyrical theme of the album but don’t see it applying to him. Jill posted in December about him being best husband, best friend etc. and these lyrics would have been written a year ago. Maybe just putting himself in the idea of it happening for lyrics but don’t see it being personal myself

[igotworms]

The lyrics do sound like they're written by someone whose relationship is on the outs. The only counter to that is that a) some of these lyrics were written 2+ years ago now and b) Ed has said that Wreckage (which seems the most obvious song about the collapse of his marriage) is about the Donald.

[tree_]

The lyrics do sound like they're written by someone whose relationship is on the outs. The only counter to that is that a) some of these lyrics were written 2+ years ago now and b) Ed has said that Wreckage (which seems the most obvious song about the collapse of his marriage) is about the Donald.

You can't honestly believe that! That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard.

He lives a very private life. He's probably already divorced for all we know. Surely he's the kinda guy that remains best friends with his ex-wife.

[mikejasond]

The whole album is actually about Eddie finding out that Jill voted for Trump

[igotworms]

The lyrics do sound like they're written by someone whose relationship is on the outs. The only counter to that is that a) some of these lyrics were written 2+ years ago now and b) Ed has said that Wreckage (which seems the most obvious song about the collapse of his marriage) is about the Donald.

You can't honestly believe that! That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard.

He lives a very private life. He's probably already divorced for all we know. Surely he's the kinda guy that remains best friends with his ex-wife.

COMBING through the wreckage. It's an obvious reference to Trump's Barnet. It was in front of our eyes the whole time.

[Strat]

Oh my god everyone shut up you sound like idiots

[tree_]

Oh my god everyone shut up you sound like idiots

whilst your comment reads like one of a petulant child

[Tj]

Oh my god everyone shut up you sound like idiots

This is the post of the day.

[Jaeti]

going to the nearest city to me on Saturday and I'm going to pick up a CD of this baby, even though I can't play it; time to start (again) my PJ CD collection

I've lapsed on this but think I'll do the same.

[igotworms]

The lyrics do sound like they're written by someone whose relationship is on the outs. The only counter to that is that a) some of these lyrics were written 2+ years ago now and b) Ed has said that Wreckage (which seems the most obvious song about the collapse of his marriage) is about the Donald.

You can't honestly believe that! That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard.

He lives a very private life. He's probably already divorced for all we know. Surely he's the kinda guy that remains best friends with his ex-wife.

FWIW I don't believe Wreckage is about Trump at all. I think the reporter fucked it up and he wad referring to Running. And Ed is definitely going to get divorced and we get ukulele songs pt 2.

[Tj]

It's obviously a opera about Dave A and Jack Irons. Remember they said it's a drum album.

[Ms Harmless]

It's obviously a opera about Dave A and Jack Irons. Remember they said it's a drum album.

Matt said "what's my motivation?" and Ed said "you're relentlessly pounding Dave A"

[Arthur Morgan]

I heard someone mention Jill Vedder's social media praising the album and passing on love to Ed as a sign they aren't getting divorced. As a guy who lives in New England and witnessed the Tom Brady and Giselle relationship nonsense, I can attest that Jill's social media stuff means nothing.

Obviously Ed (dunno so much about Jill) is not the kind of person to publicize his divorce. I'm sure he'll go to some lengths to keep it private until he's thoroughly combed through the wreckage and begun anew.

I don’t know if Ed is going through a divorce or not but I agree some of the lyrics are interesting.

WFS- you can be loved by everyone and still not feel love

You can have it all and it’s still not good enough


During the Stern interview Stern asked if Ed had been invited to Mikes property by Brandi Carlile’s home. Ed said jokingly that he would “ruin it”. That stuck with me.

And it’s hard to understand try inflection on audio only, but he seemed not as sharp when answering some of the questions, maybe tired (6am), or down.


I just hope he is a good place. I’m probably reading too far into some minor things.

[DDWJMUVW]

man this broken record interview with Stone and Jeff is gold. This is the stuff I ALWAYS want to hear. In the weeds details about writing/recording/process/etc.

LOVING it.

[Kevin Davis]

Remember when everyone attacked me because I was bemoaning the drum sounds? Shipping delays are WAY dumber to be bitching about!

The whole "drums sounding bad" thing has been lost in the sea of positivity surrounding the album as a whole, which has been a lot of fun to be a part of, but man, they really do sound bad on almost every song. The compression is insane. When the drums come it at the beginning of "Scared of Fear," I keep wanting there to be this thundering entrance, but there's just no space left in the field; it's crazy how cranked that audio file already is with just that one guitar. (Weirdly, because it's the only thing happening in the mix at the time, I think that Sean Penn pool cue sound effect is actually louder than Matt's drum set, just because the latter comes into a space that is already at capacity by the time it arrives. That feels...off.)

I don't think I've listened to the album at more than medium volume for more than a song at a time; it's just too harsh.

**Before the anti-negativity brigade piles on, I love the album -- my posts about it have been overwhelmingly positive (positive, positive). But this is the one thing I really wish was different about it. I played a few songs from Gigaton this morning, after a few days of playing Dark Matter almost exclusively, and was blown away by how much better it sounded. It sounds like Watt got a great capture at the source, it's just utterly flattened by whatever combination of things happened to it after it got sent off to be prettied up.

And I join everyone else in hoping that Eddie's doing okay in his private life. These songs really do feel like breakup songs.