Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[warehouse]

Eddie Vedder does the tracking. He all but admitted there's a story. I'm pretty sure he does this for every album. Vitalogy and Avocado are probably the most obvious.

[Ms Harmless]

this might be why Something Special keeps reminding me of Vs. lol

Ed's delivery is just quite Elderly Woman to me, it didn't even occur to me that they were the same track number

[McParadigm]

Elderly Man Behind the Mic Stand in a Small Studio

[stip]

Eddie Vedder does the tracking. He all but admitted there's a story. I'm pretty sure he does this for every album. Vitalogy and Avocado are probably the most obvious.

He says that a lot, but I think themes or ideas or questions are being conflated with story.

[Antelope]

My college-age son who grew up on PJ said his friends asked him which song on Dark Matter they should listen to to get the “essence” of Pearl Jam. He thought Scared of Fear and I thought Waiting for Stevie, but honestly I could pick any of them for any number of reasons. Which song would you pick for someone not too familiar with the band?

[Monkey_Driven]

My college-age son who grew up on PJ said his friends asked him which song on Dark Matter they should listen to to get the “essence” of Pearl Jam. He thought Scared of Fear and I thought Waiting for Stevie, but honestly I could pick any of them for any number of reasons. Which song would you pick for someone not too familiar with the band?

Scared of Fear
Wreckage
Waiting for Stevie
Setting Sun

Those all seem to represent the different song types that band frequents.

[Rangi Guy]

Somehow I ended up being that guy that bought 2 variants of the vinyl

Which ones, and do they sound the same? I got the Galaxy Red 10C version. A member of my Jamily got the crystal clear version.

Got the Galaxy Red and.....

That one is WILD looking. Cool.

That's probably the best looking variant out there, right? The New York orange splatter one also looks awesome.
On the sound side though... at least some Discogs users are favoring the 10c Red Marble one, which was pressed at RTI, while most variants were pressed at GZ Media.

I got the yellow marble one on RSD, and the red marble one from 10C. Once it drops down to like $25, I'll buy the black vinyl at Target.

This is it for me. The only reason I got this was because I got tired of waiting for my 10Club order to arrive (over two weeks later) - I had some vouchers and found a store that still had the RSD variant

[stip]

My college-age son who grew up on PJ said his friends asked him which song on Dark Matter they should listen to to get the “essence” of Pearl Jam. He thought Scared of Fear and I thought Waiting for Stevie, but honestly I could pick any of them for any number of reasons. Which song would you pick for someone not too familiar with the band?

Scared of Fear
Wreckage
Waiting for Stevie
Setting Sun

Those all seem to represent the different song types that band frequents.

this feels like the right answer

[warehouse]

Eddie Vedder does the tracking. He all but admitted there's a story. I'm pretty sure he does this for every album. Vitalogy and Avocado are probably the most obvious.

He says that a lot, but I think themes or ideas or questions are being conflated with story.

he grew up worshipping pete townshend, i wouldn't be shocked if he tracked this to tell a story

[oneway23]

the narrative of the album seems similar to Vs., maybe more grown up with "something special" replacing "leash"

Ive noticed this...well not the 'narrative' so much as the way the tracks are organized

Start off with two blistering, tense, and unhappy rockers (Go/Animal vs Scared of Fear/React Respond)
Then slow down with some poignant, pretty, catchy but kinda dark ballad (Daughter vs Wreckage)
Then a fun throwaway rocker (Glorified G vs Dark Matter)
Catchy mid-tempo story-telling rocker (Dissident vs Won't Tell)
Then a slow and atmospheric tune (WMA vs Upper Hand)
(No match for Blood lol)
Then the most triumphant anthem of the album (Rearviewmirror vs Waiting for Stevie)
Then another fun rocker (Rats vs Running)
Then slow down for a sappy yet bittersweet song (Elderly Woman vs Something Special)
Then an emotional catharsis (Leash vs Got to Give)
Finally another poignant, contemplative, and slightly sad ending song (Indifference vs Setting Sun)

I mean it's not an exact match obviously but I did notice that it reminded me a bit of how Vs was laid out.

Whoa...You've got something there.
Now that I think about it, dime said something similar a couple of weeks ago.

Can't say I put that together. Nicely done.

[Jaeti]

My college-age son who grew up on PJ said his friends asked him which song on Dark Matter they should listen to to get the “essence” of Pearl Jam. He thought Scared of Fear and I thought Waiting for Stevie, but honestly I could pick any of them for any number of reasons. Which song would you pick for someone not too familiar with the band?

Scared of Fear
Wreckage
Waiting for Stevie
Setting Sun

Those all seem to represent the different song types that band frequents.

I think these would be my picks, too.

[warehouse]

the narrative of the album seems similar to Vs., maybe more grown up with "something special" replacing "leash"

Ive noticed this...well not the 'narrative' so much as the way the tracks are organized

Start off with two blistering, tense, and unhappy rockers (Go/Animal vs Scared of Fear/React Respond)
Then slow down with some poignant, pretty, catchy but kinda dark ballad (Daughter vs Wreckage)
Then a fun throwaway rocker (Glorified G vs Dark Matter)
Catchy mid-tempo story-telling rocker (Dissident vs Won't Tell)
Then a slow and atmospheric tune (WMA vs Upper Hand)
(No match for Blood lol)
Then the most triumphant anthem of the album (Rearviewmirror vs Waiting for Stevie)
Then another fun rocker (Rats vs Running)
Then slow down for a sappy yet bittersweet song (Elderly Woman vs Something Special)
Then an emotional catharsis (Leash vs Got to Give)
Finally another poignant, contemplative, and slightly sad ending song (Indifference vs Setting Sun)

I mean it's not an exact match obviously but I did notice that it reminded me a bit of how Vs was laid out.

Whoa...You've got something there.
Now that I think about it, dime said something similar a couple of weeks ago.

Can't say I put that together. Nicely done.

yeah this is great. there's also the 'setting sun' lyrics in "Scared of Fear" that obvious repeats itself at the end. kinda how the "shades" metaphor is on 'daughter' and 'rvm'

[oneway23]

yeah this is great. there's also the 'setting sun' lyrics in "Scared of Fear" that obvious repeats itself at the end. kinda how the "shades" metaphor is on 'daughter' and 'rvm'

[Kevin Davis]

Interesting take. I really like the album but I don't hear Vs. in it at all, and a lot of those tracking parallels just flat-out don't match for me ("WMA" I would not consider a "slow atmospheric tune," for example, and I don't think "Running" and "Rats" have anything in common). I said this elsewhere but to me, from the production style right down to the tracking structure, this album reminds me of Backspacer. (This is not a "better than/worse than" thing -- I'm talking purely about the aesthetics of the record.)

Tracks 1-2 -- album opening rockers
Track 3 -- poppy/crossovery single
Track 4 -- Matt Cameron-flavored rocker
Tracks 5-6-- ballady middle section
Track 7 -- mid-tempo "centerpiece"
Track 8 - punk rocker
Track 9 - gently swinging ballad
Track 10 -- MOR/triumphant-sounding heartland-rock song
Track 11 -- closing ballad

As I said then, I like Backspacer so this isn't the knock from me that it might be from some. But apart from a couple odd elements here and there, I really can't wrap my brain around what it is about this record that has people thinking it sounds or feels like '90's Pearl Jam. To me it's as modern as modern PJ gets.

[VinylGuy]

I dont think its Vs but there are some very strong parallels for sure, specially on how the songs are treated and how they sound. Its a full band attack on all of them and its not only in energy but also in how those are structured that reminds me of Vs, Yield and in terms of modern sound, Gigaton.

[Ms Harmless]

it's definitely a long way from anything 90s if you can't get past the production / presentation

[Ms Harmless]

every single YouTube review for Dark Matter that I've found begins with "Gigaton was bad" and it's pissing me off

[VinylGuy]

every single YouTube review for Dark Matter that I've found begins with "Gigaton was bad" and it's pissing me off

kinda happens every time PJ releases a new album right?

[oasisfan35]

YouTube review?!? Why!?!

[Buby]

every single YouTube review for Dark Matter that I've found begins with "Gigaton was bad" and it's pissing me off

Gigaton is the 2nd best PJ album since...

Spoiler: show

Binaural.