Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[Strat]

Dark Matter (album) rules. Ill tell you why.....the album hits emotionally but its also FUN AS FUCKING HELL

[Juvenal]

Not only do I think Sleight of Hand is better than everything on Dark Matter, I also think it's better than Alive or Yellow Ledbetter.

I will admit there are even better songs still in the band's catalogue, however, like Evacuation.

This is why Pearl Jam is my favourite band - the 'broad church' aspect.

PS SoH is easily a 6 star platinum song

[Strat]

also, Cameron is a lot more liberal with his hi hat throughout this record. He's not so tightly wound with it closed throughout every song. Sometimes its open! sometimes its closed!

[Hypnos]

Where does this footage come from?

https://www.facebook.com/SopitasFM/vide ... 7S9Ucbxw6v

[blueviper]

Not only do I think Sleight of Hand is better than everything on Dark Matter, I also think it's better than Alive or Yellow Ledbetter.

I will admit there are even better songs still in the band's catalogue, however, like Evacuation.

Yea i could get behind this.

No. This is an opinion I can’t agree with..

[Angus]

This album made me want to listen to Ten, which I hadn't done in ages and enjoyed a lot.

[upperdecker]

Where does this footage come from?

https://www.facebook.com/SopitasFM/vide ... 7S9Ucbxw6v

Need an answer! Outstanding. Where's the rest??

[injuddstree]

Upper Hand sounds absolutely fucking amazing on the official boot. Just wow.

[WaitingForBluey]

I'm honestly shocked by how much I'm loving this Vancouver 1 boot

And DM the song is a beast live, gives me a much different perspective on the song

[WaitingForBluey]

Dark Matter (album) rules. Ill tell you why.....the album hits emotionally but its also FUN AS FUCKING HELL

Which is being confirmed when they play these songs live too!

[Ms Harmless]

the thing I like about this album most, if I had to sum it up, is that it more or less perfectly melds the Pearl Jam I am a life-long fan of, that I was familiar with until S/T, with their "newer" pop sensibilities; and I'm not sure another album has done that so well since... Lost Dogs, maybe?

[Ms Harmless]

imagine having Nothing As It Seems and Mind Your Manners on the same setlist

welcome to Portland?

[stip]

maybe this wont hold up to close scrutiny (and pearl jam has had far more time to demonstrate this) but pearl jam has always felt they had the widest sonic pallette of the big 4

[McParadigm]

maybe this wont hold up to close scrutiny (and pearl jam has had far more time to demonstrate this) but pearl jam has always felt they had the widest sonic pallette of the big 4

Yes. And that’s probably why my ideal Pearl Jam has nothing to do with any sonic landscape or aesthetic ambition.

I don’t need them to set a certain mood or explore a specific tone. I just like it when they sound like they stumbled onto something good and refused to let it go. The more they engage the calculators, the less magical it ends up being.

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them. Songwriting analyzes. It tells the moment where to go. It tries to find something the audience will think is interesting or clever. I don’t want to think. I want to feel.

[Tj]

The above is 100 percent true, and it isn't even close. I would offer they may really have the biggest in rock period ever.

[Ms Harmless]

maybe this wont hold up to close scrutiny (and pearl jam has had far more time to demonstrate this) but pearl jam has always felt they had the widest sonic pallette of the big 4

Yes. And that’s probably why my ideal Pearl Jam has nothing to do with any sonic landscape or aesthetic ambition.

I don’t need them to set a certain mood or explore a specific landscape. I just like it when they sound like they stumbled onto something good and refused to let it go. The more they engage the calculators, the less magical it ends up being.

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them. Songwriting analyzes. It tells the moment where to go. It tries to find something the audience will think is interesting or clever. I don’t want to think. I want to feel.

I'm with you; there might be Pearl Jam sounds I prefer to others, but I just want to hear them trying, hear them excited; when they're in that zone, what happens is gonna be magic: so for me, Gigaton and Dark Matter are equally magic, I don't need one of them to be better

[stip]

maybe this wont hold up to close scrutiny (and pearl jam has had far more time to demonstrate this) but pearl jam has always felt they had the widest sonic pallette of the big 4

Yes. And that’s probably why my ideal Pearl Jam has nothing to do with any sonic landscape or aesthetic ambition.

I don’t need them to set a certain mood or explore a specific tone. I just like it when they sound like they stumbled onto something good and refused to let it go. The more they engage the calculators, the less magical it ends up being.

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them. Songwriting analyzes. It tells the moment where to go. It tries to find something the audience will think is interesting or clever. I don’t want to think. I want to feel.

this is where i am, I think

[RockPusher]

maybe this wont hold up to close scrutiny (and pearl jam has had far more time to demonstrate this) but pearl jam has always felt they had the widest sonic pallette of the big 4

Yes. And that’s probably why my ideal Pearl Jam has nothing to do with any sonic landscape or aesthetic ambition.

I don’t need them to set a certain mood or explore a specific tone. I just like it when they sound like they stumbled onto something good and refused to let it go. The more they engage the calculators, the less magical it ends up being.

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them. Songwriting analyzes. It tells the moment where to go. It tries to find something the audience will think is interesting or clever. I don’t want to think. I want to feel.

If they’re the only one
Will they ever be enough?
YEAH!

[Kevin Davis]

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them

Maybe not anymore, but their catalog is more colorful and flavorful for the fact that, at various times throughout their lifespan, individual songwriters have been able to bring in things which were entirely their own vision, without having to filter it collectively through the whole to reach some democratically agreed-upon middle. Eddie and Mike are great at what they do but I am happy that not all of Stone, Jeff, and Matt’s creative impulses have been filtered through them. I am glad that songs like “Pilate” and “Rival” and “ATY” weren’t joint band compositions. I like the single-voice quirks that have the potential to come from the individual writers; the band gives them enough of a collective voice by performing them.

To everything there is a season, and maybe now their best stuff comes from working just as they did on DM. That’s fine with me. But, I’m glad it’s not the only way they’ve worked, as I think it would have come at the expense of multiple songs I love.

[stip]

Solo songwriting is not a great approach for them

Maybe not anymore, but their catalog is more colorful and flavorful for the fact that, at various times throughout their lifespan, individual songwriters have been able to bring in things which were entirely their own vision, without having to filter it collectively through the whole to reach some democratically agreed-upon middle. Eddie and Mike are great at what they do but I am happy that not all of Stone, Jeff, and Matt’s creative impulses have been filtered through them. I am glad that songs like “Pilate” and “Rival” and “ATY” weren’t joint band compositions. I like the single-voice quirks that have the potential to come from the individual writers; the band gives them enough of a collective voice by performing them.

To everything there is a season, and maybe now their best stuff comes from working just as they did on DM. That’s fine with me. But, I’m glad it’s not the only way they’ve worked, as I think it would have come at the expense of multiple songs I love.

do you think songs like that could emerge from a collaborative writing process, or do you suppose they are products of a singular vision?