Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[wease]

Trust me, once the rigor mortis sets in, it's very hard to pry something from a dead person's hands.

Gotta grab it quick!

[Leatherhead]

Dark Matter is Yield made by 60 year old dads.

[Leatherhead]

I'm really hoping for a b-side sometime soon.

[Jaeti]

Trust me, once the rigor mortis sets in, it's very hard to pry something from a dead person's hands.

TRUST YOU!??!

[RockPusher]

Trust me, once the rigor mortis sets in, it's very hard to pry something from a dead person's hands.

TRUST YOU!??!

Farmer John is a serial killer, confirmed

[Farmer John]

No, no I wouldn't hurt a fly. BUT, some examples of things I've pried from cold, dead hands include: Charlton Heston's guns, vinyl copies of Dark Matter...you know, things like that.

[VinylGuy]

Just came here to say i love Upper Hand so much

[RockPusher]

Just came here to say i love Upper Hand so much

It is an extremely well-built Pearl Jam song. This is where Watt's knowledge of "who they are" is so essential. The ingredients to make this song were there when the band recorded Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, and Gigaton, but in those situations a song as fully-developed as this would never have happened (sorry Gigaton, but for all your awesomeness, this is the drawback of Josh Evans, who let the band do what they wanted, vs Andrew Watt, who directed them based on a vision of what he knew they could do).

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[liebzz]

I listened to this today for the first time in a while. Maybe a month or two? Anyway, I am now quite comfortable in opining or at least registering that this is my favorite of their albums since Yield…and I think VERY highly of Binaural in particular.

[VinylGuy]

Just came here to say i love Upper Hand so much

It is an extremely well-built Pearl Jam song. This is where Watt's knowledge of "who they are" is so essential. The ingredients to make this song were there when the band recorded Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, and Gigaton, but in those situations a song as fully-developed as this would never have happened (sorry Gigaton, but for all your awesomeness, this is the drawback of Josh Evans, who let the band do what they wanted, vs Andrew Watt, who directed them based on a vision of what he knew they could do).

while i get what you say here, im basically at the moment were im just enjoying the music, the energy, the feeling of it. Im kinda past all the Watt or Evans talk.

Im sure ill be back at it but these days is more like Whoa, this album rules!!

[wease]

I’m gonna be playing this for Papa Wease tomorrow on the way to see Warren Haynes.

[tommy]

Just came here to say i love Upper Hand so much

It's an unbelievable achievement for this band at this stage in their career.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[tommy]

Just came here to say i love Upper Hand so much

It's an unbelievable achievement for this band at this stage in their career.

Revisiting their prior retreads of Pink Floyd registers as "an unbelievable achievement"?

Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly solid song and it seems to soar in the live setting, but let's try to be more selective with our adjectives here.

I will not tone down my language. These guys are old and complacent - this whole album is something of a miracle.

[Birds in Hell]

The miracle was that several moments on Gigaton approached the quality of songwriting and performance of Riot Act, proving they still have it in them if only they create the right circumstances for it to occur.

Dark Matter is closer to a regression back to the doldrums of Backspacer and Lightning Bolt.

[tommy]

The miracle was that several moments on Gigaton approached the quality of songwriting and performance of Riot Act, proving they still have it in them if only they create the right circumstances for it to occur.

Dark Matter is closer to a regression back to the doldrums of Backspacer and Lightning Bolt.

I really don't hear that at all. Gigaton felt, to me, like them actually getting right what they had attempted on BS and LB. Dark Matter is more of a Yield or ST - a conscious return to form and I think they managed to capture some of the old Pearl Jam energy.

[AndySlash]

The miracle was that several moments on Gigaton approached the quality of songwriting and performance of Riot Act, proving they still have it in them if only they create the right circumstances for it to occur.

Dark Matter is closer to a regression back to the doldrums of Backspacer and Lightning Bolt.

[Leatherhead]

The miracle was that several moments on Gigaton approached the quality of songwriting and performance of Riot Act, proving they still have it in them if only they create the right circumstances for it to occur.

Dark Matter is closer to a regression back to the doldrums of Backspacer and Lightning Bolt.

Yes, Gigaton is better than DM. But DM isn't another BS/LB.

[McParadigm]

I see them as very distinct parts of the band’s post-Yield pursuit of a broader creative identity…a journey that was not always rewarding to participate in, but was admirable for its typical Pearl Jam “let’s make this way harder than it has to be” underdogism.

Binaural, Riot Act, Pearl Jam: The Sullen Trilogy.

We had a lot of fun on Yield, but apparently it was by accident.

This era is bookended by two examples of the band trying to bake a tragedy, dropping it on their way out of the kitchen, and then presenting it for consumption anyways. In between is an actual tragedy, which hurt so bad that it gave them aphasia.

Backspacer / Lightning Bolt: Baby Steps

When you’re young and idealistic….and especially when your “disappointing“ albums sell 3 million copies worldwide…you don’t worry about the consequences of kicking everyone out of the room.

But now you are middle aged. Almost literally everyone in your life (including every face at every concert) falls under the category of “people I can’t afford to let down.”

I bet that makes it pretty hard to write a song. I bet you think too much. I even suspect you might be grateful for the novelty of a production trinket. Or maybe you prefer safe spaces, old collaborators, and familiar patterns.

One could be forgiven if, having watched you wrap yourself up so tightly and then reach out to zip up the bag, they concluded that you were never coming back out.

Gigaton / Dark Matter: Songs for Whoever We Leave Behind

Well, they should’ve seen it fuckin coming, then, shouldn’t they? Under. Dog. That’s the brand.

Bonus: the journey is more or less at its end, so you can’t really fuck it up anymore. Might as well pull the tarp off and see what this glorious piece of shit can still do.

There are fresh ears in the room, now, and there’s a lot less giving a shit about the fanbase. And for the first time in 30 years, there’s an audience to sing for. Someone whose story deserves advocation. Someone whose song needs to be written.

There’s less thought and more passion in these songs and performances. And both albums are very good at what they set out to do: use a machine from the past to talk about the future.