Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[dimejinky99]

WFS doesnt sound like Pj at any previous point at all to me. And it's great for exactly that reason.

[stip]

having said that, pearl jam is a big tent band at this point, with a rich enough catalog that there is not one type of experience or process that is the ‘right’ way to record or song to produce. Riot Act and Binaural are at the bottom of their catalog for me, but I don’t doubt dor a second that the people who adore sleight of hand feel something real and true and powerful. and because its still pearl jam, still the same musicians, there is something i can latch onto and enjoy in almost all their songs - an incredible batting average that exceeds every other band i have ever invested myself in.

I didnt see/read the stone interview yet. I would love to see them sit down and marinate in the process and see where it leads them. I just want them to do it together as a band. not as a collection of individual songwriters writing individual songs that the rest contribute parts to. That can create great music (Gigaton was my favorite post vitalogy record until dark matter. it is excellent), but I suspect this process would be even greater. i am sure there is less incentive to park yourself somewhere for a good long with families, though. those kids need to go to college!

[stip]

WFS doesnt sound like Pj at any previous point at all to me. And it's great for exactly that reason.

it does (incredibly successfully) reach for emotional territory they havent touched in a long while, and in a way that swallows you (to use eddie’s lyric) that sounds like 2024 (it is a quite intentionally not trying to sound youthful) in a composition that remembers what it was like to be young. that is its magic

[stip]

it isnt vulnerable in the way a ten/vs era song would have been (which is smart - that would have been inauthentic). but that leaves space to take the empathy that would have competed for emotional space and crank it up to 11. Waiting for Stevie does not directly experience, but it REMEMBERS.

this song is a six star masterpiece that could only have been written in 2024 having lived through 1991-2023. but that it was only possible now doesnt mean it had to. the odds were against it. its why it sometimes feels miraculous

[Tj]

it isnt vulnerable in the way a ten/vs era song would have been (which is smart - that would have been inauthentic). but that leaves space to take the empathy that would have competed for emotional space and crank it up to 11. Waiting for Stevie does not directly experience, but it REMEMBERS.

this song is a six star masterpiece that could only have been written in 2024 having lived through 1991-2023. but that it was only possible now doesnt mean it had to. the odds were against it. its why it sometimes feels miraculous

So I am have wondering reading this is if this a top ten song for you.

[stip]

i havent tried to figure out my top 10 recently and its still a new song but quite possibly

same for dance

Chronologically

Alive
Porch
Rearview Mirror
Last Exit
Corduroy
Dance of the Clairvoyants
Waiting for Stevie

then it get blurry

so yes! top 7 apparently

[stip]

the rest would be some combo of Jeremy, SOLAT, Animal, Elderly Woman, Immortality, DTE, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, and Superblood

[Tj]

the rest would be some combo of Jeremy, SOLAT, Animal, Elderly Woman, Immortality, DTE, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, and Superblood

Interesting to see Superblood up that high. Gigaton and S/T both get in your top 20 or so. So do you have Dark Matter below S/T and Gigaton?

[Tj]

GTF
Corduroy
Unthought Known
Black
Alive
Rearviewmirror
DTE
YLB
Tremor Christ
Setting Sun
Immortality
Release
Animal
Upper Hand
SOLAT
DOTC
Just Breathe
Who you Are
I Got Id
Wreckage

[Tj]

I could see all Dark Matter tracks going up.

[stip]

the rest would be some combo of Jeremy, SOLAT, Animal, Elderly Woman, Immortality, DTE, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, and Superblood

Interesting to see Superblood up that high. Gigaton and S/T both get in your top 20 or so. So do you have Dark Matter below S/T and Gigaton?

Superblood has always struck a chord with me, especially once its about a third of the way in.
no, I have dark matter above everything but the first 3. even the bottom DM songs are really really good. it has a consistency unmatched outside those first 3. possibly exceeds them

but i want to see where DM is two years from now. I am pretty confident WFS will stay where it is (or even advance). others could join. there are another 4 5 or near 5 star songs on that record which no other post vitalogy album comes close to except yield. but yield is very inconsistent (to me)

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[McParadigm]

You’re no rock and roll fun.

[VinylGuy]

SBWM is awesome. I love the guitars, the solo is awesome and how weird and cool the bridges are

[RockPusher]

SBWM is such an unadulterated piece of crap

I don't love it but given a list of PJ's spritzy punkers I would probably place it near the top. I mean, how can you not love the line "Love not withstanding we are each of us fucked!"

[RockPusher]

the rest would be some combo of Jeremy, SOLAT, Animal, Elderly Woman, Immortality, DTE, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, and Superblood

Interesting to see Superblood up that high. Gigaton and S/T both get in your top 20 or so. So do you have Dark Matter below S/T and Gigaton?

Superblood has always struck a chord with me, especially once its about a third of the way in.
no, I have dark matter above everything but the first 3. even the bottom DM songs are really really good. it has a consistency unmatched outside those first 3. possibly exceeds them

but i want to see where DM is two years from now. I am pretty confident WFS will stay where it is (or even advance). others could join. there are another 4 5 or near 5 star songs on that record which no other post vitalogy album comes close to except yield. but yield is very inconsistent (to me)

I have reached the point where I am playing DM less because I don't want to wear it out. However, when I play it it still really hits. I sometimes skip the songs Dark Matter and Running. Those songs are not bad at all, but the stuff surrounding them is juicier to me.

[Evvo]

Still love the album and the highs are absolutely spectacular. Would probably put it in the top 3 with Yield and Vs.

I’ve skipped Running pretty much every time so am basically seeing this as a ten track album now!

[VinylGuy]

i took a very good rest this last couple of months, but got the vinyl in europe so im back baby

Dudes, im so in love with so much stuff from this album.

[McParadigm]

Had a real fun listen this morning. Very admirative of all the playing after the solo ends in the title track. Love the twinkle in the singer’s eye as he toys with the very last syllable of “one thing I never had was the upper hand” like a cat having fun with its prey. I like the moment right before the big guitar hook returns for the end of got to give, when Ed is still hootin and hollerin and someone teases the riff, buried underneath and lower down on the fretboard.

I like what they are doing, all of the time.

[guitar_davey]

When Gigaton had settled in a bit, I said it would probably be the PJ album I'd listen to the most from that point forward.

I was wrong -- it'll likely be Dark Matter. I think it might be their best front-to-back record.

That said -- and I'm not the hardcore audiophile many of you are -- I wish the production wasn't so noticeably loud and harsh. And the clipping "click" on the first beat of barre two in React, Respond is an inexplicable production blunder.