liebzz wrote:I don’t think Speed of Sound as particularly poppy,
The chorus of "I'm still holding tight" all the way to "this night has been a long one" followed by that synth hook is extremely poppy to my ears. Also the main verse melody is very much an earworm. It's also an extremely... produced song. Those castanets, keyboards everywhere...
liebzz wrote:and yes wildly awkward - not in an experimental way, but in a subject matter and in both the music and vocals. It comes across to me as Pearl Jam forcefully shoehorning another personality onto their song.
It's got some fun timing hiccups, but it's still a compact power-chord laden song. This is one of the few Backspacer songs I still like.
Anders wrote:I do not have a «neoliberal assessment of geopolitics», so please stop writing that I do.
I dont quite need to compare to it Backspacer because DM feels and seems more of a band effort. Every song has the band working very tight with each other, specially the guitars, whole BS had a lof of songs that felt just Ed's. in DM even the "ballads" are profoundly PJ, as i can chose to hear what Jeff or Mike or Stone are doing and its always interesting and cool.
It also feels like the more Led Zep from them, with various different moods and swings in the same song.
After listening around 30 times, here are my current song rankings with tiers (subject to change):
All-Timers
1. Wreckage (the harmonies!)
2. GTG (the climax!)
3. WFS (the Pearl Jam!)
4. Setting Sun (the lyrics!)
5. UH (the intro!)
6. WT (the bridge/outro!)
digster wrote:Yeah, I think if DM has any recent corollaries in the catalog, it's the stuff on the back half of Backspacer (things like ATW, Unthought Known, Force of Nature)
My initial impression of DM was "this is an album full of 'Force of Nature's"
Honestly, that's not far off.
not at all
I totally see the "variations on Force of Nature" perspective. And Force of Nature is great, so it's not a bad initial target to start out with for an album. But so much here reaches heights that nothing on Backspacer does (including its best song: Force of Nature).
The "album full of Force of Natures" fits pretty well with my thinking that Dark Matter is akin to a movie soundtrack in the way it strives for those highs.
Strat wrote:Now we have Dark Matter. Fuck. My patience paid off. its legit. Watt knew it too. Get these motherfuckers in a room together and become the band they once were/always have been.
I think this approach is probably a good one for the band but I do have concerns Matt will end up having much less opportunity to contribute to the band's songwriting as a result.
I don't hear anything like it on DM - if I stretch REAL far I could say the verse is somewhat similar to the SOF verse, but barely.
After a couple weeks, I have the tiers as follows
1. (absolutely in love with these - will listen every single time I play "dark matter" songs but don't indulge in the full record. id be proud to blast in front of anyone and say "that's my #1 band of 30 yrs!")
SoF
Wreckage
Setting Sun
DM
Got to Give
Won't Tell
2. (very strong songs I'll go to time and again and will be in the rotation regularly)
WFS
React, Respond
Upper Hand
3. (capable fillers that I DO enjoy when doing a full album run)
Something Special
Running (but the bridge is top notch)
"For me, it's all about the time we're having just playing the songs. So if it's kind of a mindless good time, then....."
Jaeti wrote:Current star status. Trying to make a few songs fully earn their 5s.
5 – Won't Tell, Waiting for Stevie, Setting Sun
4.5 – Scared of Fear, Wreckage, Upper Hand, Got to Give
4 – React/Respond, Running
3.5 – Dark Matter
3 – Something Special
5 – Won't Tell, Waiting for Stevie, Setting Sun
4 – React/Respond, Dark Matter, Scared of Fear, Upper Hand
3 – Running, Got to Give, Wreckage
2 – Something Special
"The fatal flaw of all revolutionaries is that they know how to tear things down but don't have a f**king clue about how to build anything."
I'll bite. I definitely think Force of Nature gets closest to what they're doing on Dark Matter, out of all the songs on Backspacer, but it still feels somewhat neutered and less live. When I hear Dark Matter, I feel like I hear each member of the band playing the way they want to play. Jeff's basslines are inventive, with different tones and tons of vigor throughout (plus Jeff got to throw in some of his ambient music compositions as bookends). Stone, as he's talked about relentlessly, is doing all the things he loves in the background and sometimes foreground, being "heard" a lot more on this record than others of recent vintage. Mike is getting a chance to rotate through all his favorite lead styles on DM, so we are able to hear some (like the Yellow Ledbetter style lead on Upper Hand) that we haven't heard in a while, and even some really fresh new moments (needle mosquito on React, Respond). Matt actually sounds like that drummer in Soundgarden on this record, and we know how Watt worked his butt off to get that performance out of him. It was already written about in the RM threads when Earthling came out how Watt seemed to "unlock" Eddie.
RockPusher wrote:I'll bite. I definitely think Force of Nature gets closest to what they're doing on Dark Matter, out of all the songs on Backspacer, but it still feels somewhat neutered and less live. When I hear Dark Matter, I feel like I hear each member of the band playing the way they want to play. Jeff's basslines are inventive, with different tones and tons of vigor throughout (plus Jeff got to throw in some of his ambient music compositions as bookends). Stone, as he's talked about relentlessly, is doing all the things he loves in the background and sometimes foreground, being "heard" a lot more on this record than others of recent vintage. Mike is getting a chance to rotate through all his favorite lead styles on DM, so we are able to hear some (like the Yellow Ledbetter style lead on Upper Hand) that we haven't heard in a while, and even some really fresh new moments (needle mosquito on React, Respond). Matt actually sounds like that drummer in Soundgarden on this record, and we know how Watt worked his butt off to get that performance out of him. It was already written about in the RM threads when Earthling came out how Watt seemed to "unlock" Eddie.
"Neutered and less live" is a great way to describe the difference.
Enjoying the full album is just so effortless for me right now which hasn't been the case the last few.
liebzz wrote:Backspacer didn’t quite push for this level of accessibility
You are out of your mind
*Target video joins the chat*
That whole Target deal didn't help them with accessibility, to be honest. It actually restricted the way people could get the album and presumably hurt album sales for Backspacer. I'm sure they knew that going in. The benefit for PJ is that Target gave them a guaranteed units shipped payment that exceeded what they realistically would have sold without having the exclusive across sales channels. PJ basically hedged against what was a declining physical sales market and took a guaranteed payment, even if it meant fewer people would buy the album.
liebzz wrote:I will give you that Amongst the Waves, Unthought Known, and Force of Nature tried to be anthemic. But that’s one quarter of the album trying vis-a-vis most of Dark Matter.
And none of those songs have the sonic scope the songs on DM have, loudness notwithstanding.
