Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[Ms Harmless]

Amp the Ampless

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[VinylGuy]

who cares dude

this is making me jump and dance. and you know what?

NO FUCKING FADE OUTS

[contamination]

It's a 3 star album after first listen. All that's missing from Setting Sun is a steelpan.

[BootsToAsses]

I'm happy to send money to anyone who can purchase the hi-res for me?

I want to listen with headphones tonight, I'm so impatient!

[oneway23]

a kind RMer just hooked me up with the Mastered for Apple FLAC. Converted it to ALAC then opened it in Logic. Still loud as hell, but ever so slightly less compressed according to the waveform. If the last ones were at an 11, I'd say this is a 10.7.

Brutal!

Is the "Mastered for Apple" the 24-bit release dithered down to 16?

[mikejasond]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

[Fattie_Vedder]

a kind RMer just hooked me up with the Mastered for Apple FLAC. Converted it to ALAC then opened it in Logic. Still loud as hell, but ever so slightly less compressed according to the waveform. If the last ones were at an 11, I'd say this is a 10.7.

Brutal!

I apologize if you've been asked this before and had to explain multiple times, so I totally understand if you don't feel like answering it again. For the technical audio production illiterate among us like myself, what is it exactly that makes this sound so 'loud'? Even with the volume low, it feels like a lot on the ears. What is it that is creating that effect, and why does volume not matter?

[RockPusher]

Listening in headphones and in all honesty, turning down the volume fixes a lot of the production problems.

[Fattie_Vedder]

I have not listened to the album yet today, but I was just thinking about it and singing the songs in my head. The mere thought of the Setting Sun outro makes me well up inside.

This might just be one of my favorite pearl jam albums.

[daft twat]

Feels like there's more enthusiasm and positive reaction from DM the album vs. the last few records, specific to the RM community.

What do you guys think/remember?

From memory:

S/T - lukewarm
Backspacer - ibid
Lightning Bolt - largely negative
Gigaton - very positive

Rough personal estimate of initial RM reaction:

S/T- 6/10
Backspacer - 5/10
Lightning Bolt - 3/10
Gigaton - 8/10
Dark Matter - 9/10

S/T - suffers from what i call…lack of Highs…its a good record, not really any classics on it, Unemployable would be the template to what came the next decade.

It's a long time ago, but I think everyone really liked S/T when it was released. That kind of dulled with time, but the initial reaction was pretty huge.

For sure. There was a leak - first four songs, I think, and people were creaming their jeans over the rawness of Crapshoot Rapture and the Severed Hand riff. There was a brightness about the album after Binaural and Riot Act back to back. People made fun of Unemployable sounding like Shania Twain, but crazy knee-jerk reactions to Come Back and Inside Job were frequent. I would compare it to Weezer’s Green album. It sounded a little like the band we knew in the 90s, but the songs were thin and didn’t hold up too well. Marker and Army Reserve are super interesting, but while war is always going to be a thing, those songs feel tied to a conflict that we’re just kind of over. Anyway, Life Wasted is still great.

[VinylGuy]

a kind RMer just hooked me up with the Mastered for Apple FLAC. Converted it to ALAC then opened it in Logic. Still loud as hell, but ever so slightly less compressed according to the waveform. If the last ones were at an 11, I'd say this is a 10.7.

Brutal!

I apologize if you've been asked this before and had to explain multiple times, so I totally understand if you don't feel like answering it again. For the technical audio production illiterate among us like myself, what is it exactly that makes this sound so 'loud'? Even with the volume low, it feels like a lot on the ears. What is it that is creating that effect, and why does volume not matter?

Its basically that there is not a dynamic range because everything is so loud, even in moments of ¨silence¨ you are still way up there. Its a thing producers use for attention i guess? dont know.

[oneway23]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

I can see where you're coming from. It may not be the lyrical "3-D chess", as Ed once called it, of Avocado, but...what I would say is this; the lyrical earnestness that has been a hallmark of his writing since day one has quite possibly never been better deployed than it has for this set of songs. They're well suited for that level of emotional vulnerability.

[Ms Harmless]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

I can see where you're coming from. It may not be the lyrical "3-D chess", as Ed called it, of Avocado, but...what I would say is this...The lyrical earnestness that has been a hallmark of his writing since day one has quite possibly never been better deployed than it has for this set of songs. They're well suited for that level of emotional vulnerability.

I was a little disappointed with some of these lyrics when I was at the cinema, but finding out that the themes feel apparently so raw and real, and they're stretched across the album, that approach starts to make sense (even Something Special is lifted by the album context); and poetry doesn't have to be a complex puzzle, there are plenty of very simple but beautiful lines here

[RockPusher]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

I can see where you're coming from. It may not be the lyrical "3-D chess", as Ed called it, of Avocado, but...what I would say is this...The lyrical earnestness that has been a hallmark of his writing since day one has quite possibly never been better deployed than it has for this set of songs. They're well suited for that level of emotional vulnerability.

I was a little disappointed with some of these lyrics when I was at the cinema, but finding out that the themes feel apparently so raw and real, and they're stretched across the album, that approach starts to make sense (even Something Special is lifted by the album context); and poetry doesn't have to be a complex puzzle, there are plenty of very simple but beautiful lines here

[Fattie_Vedder]

a kind RMer just hooked me up with the Mastered for Apple FLAC. Converted it to ALAC then opened it in Logic. Still loud as hell, but ever so slightly less compressed according to the waveform. If the last ones were at an 11, I'd say this is a 10.7.

Brutal!

I apologize if you've been asked this before and had to explain multiple times, so I totally understand if you don't feel like answering it again. For the technical audio production illiterate among us like myself, what is it exactly that makes this sound so 'loud'? Even with the volume low, it feels like a lot on the ears. What is it that is creating that effect, and why does volume not matter?

Its basically that there is not a dynamic range because everything is so loud, even in moments of ¨silence¨ you are still way up there. Its a thing producers use for attention i guess? dont know.

So, when you say dynamic range, what exactly does that mean? And why would that matter in moments of 'silence'? When you say everything is so loud, do I understand correctly that all instruments are mixed in a way that they are equally loud as opposed to some have lower volume than others and sit in the back more? So the effect of this being an assault on the ears, even at lower volumes, is because every instrument is equally loud and it all vies for your ears' attention?

[Buby]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

I can see where you're coming from. It may not be the lyrical "3-D chess", as Ed called it, of Avocado, but...what I would say is this...The lyrical earnestness that has been a hallmark of his writing since day one has quite possibly never been better deployed than it has for this set of songs. They're well suited for that level of emotional vulnerability.

I was a little disappointed with some of these lyrics when I was at the cinema, but finding out that the themes feel apparently so raw and real, and they're stretched across the album, that approach starts to make sense (even Something Special is lifted by the album context); and poetry doesn't have to be a complex puzzle, there are plenty of very simple but beautiful lines here

"I think you're hurting yourself just to hurt me" hits all kinds of hard.

[Ms Harmless]

I think these are simultaneously some of the best and worst lyrics on a Pearl Jam album.

They are blunt, not that poetic, sometimes trite, straightforward, etc. Taken on an individual level they don’t often wow or come across as a bit weak. On some songs that I liked on first listen they weakened when reading the lyrics on second listen.

But they also come across as honest, raw, and personal. And cohesive across the album for whatever Eddie is trying to express. And in that way I think they are actually some of his strongest. It definitely gives you the feeling the album is about something.

I can see where you're coming from. It may not be the lyrical "3-D chess", as Ed called it, of Avocado, but...what I would say is this...The lyrical earnestness that has been a hallmark of his writing since day one has quite possibly never been better deployed than it has for this set of songs. They're well suited for that level of emotional vulnerability.

I was a little disappointed with some of these lyrics when I was at the cinema, but finding out that the themes feel apparently so raw and real, and they're stretched across the album, that approach starts to make sense (even Something Special is lifted by the album context); and poetry doesn't have to be a complex puzzle, there are plenty of very simple but beautiful lines here

"I think you're hurting yourself just to hurt me" hits all kinds of hard.

it's like we're a fly on the wall during some really awkward family moments lol

[Ms Harmless]

did anyone have "Pearl Jam's best ever record about family" on their 2024 bingo card?

[Ello Sailor]

Settle down, Vin Diesel.