stip wrote:Interlude
There is a beautiful interlude that follows Waiting for Stevie. A badly needed moment to take a breath as Eddie sings “Be mighty. Be humble. Be mighty humble.” A reflection on the power and privilege and responsibility of having a voice and having the opportunity to share it.
Running
Which follows immediately into the hyper kinetic Running, an absurd transition that absolutely should not work and absolutely does. In part because Running needs to lower the stakes after an unusually emotionally intense run of songs. Possibly for the first time, the late album cool down track is needed.
But Running is a disposable delight. Jeff plays the hell out of it. The familiar punk chords are colored in by great drilling guitar fills. The melody is insanely catchy and surprisingly dexterous for a song like this. The gang vocals are a blast. The bridge interjects some welcome drama, and there’s a completely reckless and chaotic outro. Everyone is having a grand time, and the song knows exactly what it is.
The lyrics punch a little above the weight class of the song. They aren’t Eddie’s best, but the wordplay and flow are clever and fun, and the bridge interjects some weight.
Living in the shadows, crossing my fingers
A date with the gallows and a reprieve not looking lightly
Some of the themes around frustration, uncertainty, the finality of endings, the fear that it will come before we’re ready recur throughout, ensuring that Running stays grounded and relevant in a thematically heavy album, despite its lightness.
Something Special
Something Special takes a moment to align to your expectations. Other than Running, Dark Matter is a pretty serious record (as almost all Pearl Jam records are), and so Running probably must precede Something Special. It’s a country tinged, winning, relentlessly catchy ear worm of a song. The musicianship is lovely, and everyone completely commits to the song. This is clearly an ‘Eddie family song’, but unlike predecessors like Just Breath, The End, or Future Days, this is a song the entire band composed and played. Everyone has a relevant contribution, and it lends the proceedings legitimacy, if not gravitas (which it does not want), they wouldn’t otherwise have. It is genuinely fun to listen to if your understanding of what constitutes a Pearl Jam song isn’t too cramped (this is a song I would have hated in 1996 when Who You Are was a struggle and Mankind a bridge too far).
Eddie is singing to his daughters. A loving father’s affirmation of their worth and value. His pride. His love. His hopes and dreams and, nestled within them, his fears. There is some clever wordplay, and every moment is dripping with sentiment. There is some cheesy dad energy to both the lyrics and delivery, but with intent. This song knows what it is, and Eddie knows exactly what he is doing. And while it probably helps that I have daughters, I don’t have a direct one-to-one correlation with the subject matter of most Pearl Jam songs, something only necessary for the most literal minded. If you have pride and aspiration and concern and feel protective towards something in your life that is moving towards independence, you can find something to relate to here.
And that’s the hidden strength of Something Special that may not reveal itself on early listens. This is quite a bittersweet song. It is about saying goodbye to your birds as they fly from your nest. It is trying to cram in every bit of parting advice they might ever need (whether or not they want to hear it) because you can no longer be sure you’ll be there to give it to them. Knowing the doubts and fears you faced (and still do), it’s about making sure they can see in themselves the strength that you find there. It’s more majestic when Eddie covers this territory in Waiting for Stevie, but it’s real and true here too.
And there is the final lyric of the song. “We’ve done all that we can do.” Eddie delivers the lyric with a sigh. And not of relief. Of finality. Whatever happens next is beyond his control. In a very real way, this is where he says goodbye. The care never ends. The fear never ends. The love never ends. But it’s for them to manage now. You can only hope you’ve done enough, knowing that life can be impossible in so many ways, and all you can do will never be enough.
Got to Give
Got to Give opens with another lovely interlude. Musically it is an organic transition out of Something Special, but it also serves to raise the stakes as we move towards the conclusion of Dark Matter.
Got to Give is a ramshackle roots rock anthem. It’s open-hearted and optimistic and probably Eddie’s best homage to Springsteen, successful because it doesn’t shy away from the pop sensibilities that soften Bruce’s excess. Pearl Jam has a lot of ‘getting in a car and driving away songs’, and it’s a vibe that at this point doesn’t need a car. Got to Give finds itself in that lineage, driving a convertible.
At this point Dark Matter is starting to tie its core themes together, and Got to Give can be understood at least partly as a prelude to the sublime Setting Sun. It starts from a place of concern about the health and stability of a relationship, the conflict hiding behind the ‘cheap disguise’ of someone he cares deeply for. The frustration is there as well, and there are echoes of Scared of Fear. Same fears, better communication, or at least more front facing optimism and grit.
There is a bounce to both Scared of Fear and Got to Give, but Scared of Fear floated along on anxious energy, whereas Got to Give is running on both stubborn optimism and open acceptance that a life in process will always be messy. It commits to lean into, rather than fight this.
And here I am just picking up the parts
A broken engine busted lifted up on blocks
Should have made the turn when the road got rough
But who knew?
There is a fighting spirit in the chorus sees Eddie embracing his 70s classic rock roots, the sincere and simple belief that if you sing with enough conviction, you move mountains.
I will be the last one standing…bracing my heart until something gives
Cracks emerge as we transition into the back half of the song –human limits to patience and a need to push through the bullshit so we can get to the point of what really matters. “That we are better. Together you and me.”
It’s a familiar point but Got to Give sticks its emotional landing with a major key jam, and spirited outro from Eddie that sees him bouncing with confidence across his range, challenging his inner Daltry and nailing it. It’s a bracing moment in a winning song that helps pivot into Dark Matter’s incredible closing moments.
Setting Sun
Pearl Jam generally writes three types of album closers. Some are triumphant or defiant (think Release, All Those Yesterdays, Inside Job). Some are quiet and meditative (Indifference, Immortality, Around the Bend, Parting Ways, All or None. The End, Future Days, River Cross). Some are anxious (see pretty much all the songs I just listed). Setting Sun might be the first one to successfully straddle all three spaces.
There are some remarkable tonal shifts in a song that feels familiar and new, like an improvisation on an old theme. There is a real island beach feel to the music, almost like Indifference and All Those Yesterdays were rewritten in a Hawaiian bungalow. Same existential concerns but coming from someone whose life has known real joy, only to see it all fall apart before the end. Before the work is done. Before the need is gone. Or worse, broken and wrecked. The connection gone. The love gone.
There’s a quiet commitment to keep moving forward. To keep searching. Grounded in fear of and need for connection– states of mind explored throughout the record. It’s an act of faith, with the conviction to will it into existence.
Keep knocking the door
Cause I know someone’s there
I wait on the porch
Hoping someday I’ll be let in.
They say in the end
Everything will be okay
If it’s not okay
Well then, it ain’t the end.
It’s not a sentiment all that dissimilar from All or None, though it comes more from a place of hope than muscle memory. It’s explored more openly in the beautiful chorus that ties together themes and ideas that have been running through the record – the need for connections, the longing (the secret hidden in Won’t Tell), the desire to stretch the moments we have out forever. And the recognition that forever comes to an end, one moment at a time, until we are once again alone.
Had dreams to you I would belong
Had the dream you would stay with me til Kingdom Come
Turns out forever has come and gone
Am I the only one hanging on?
The second set of verses and chorus revisit the same themes, the lives shared and lost, and what it means to linger after the people you love are gone. There are small but significant lyrical changes, like the passive/descriptive ‘had the dream you would stay with me til Kingdom Come’ shifting to the more active, grasping ‘held the dream…’
Eddie’s voice lifts the lyrics alongside the music, everyone in beautiful mourning over the too late realization that we failed (or cannot) to hold onto what he have, and the desolating cost of loss. As the music hits its sustained peak, he clings to his invocations:
If you could see what I see now
You’d find a way to stay somehow
The impossible wish to linger on, if not with love than in love. If not in love, then with the possibility of love. For as long as we can. For as long as we need. But not, ultimately, forever. Lives change. Loves change. We change. Our lives and loves change us. And they will end. They must. And we must let them. As the music reaches its crescendo and Dark Matter draws to a close, we are offered our last and final choice. How will it end?
“We could become one last setting sun.” Our light diminished. Our legacy darkness.
Or we can find a way to live on. If not in ourselves then in the lives we’ve touched, the love we shared. The connections we made, and the people who receive our light. “We could be the sun at the break of dawn.”
And when understood that way, turns out there’s no choice to make after all. “Let us not fade…”
Human connection is the dark matter between us. And what we fear is its power. It forges the chains that bind us to our past, our present, and our future. It anchors love. It conquers death. It pulls us through the wreckage of our world.
We just need to see it. To have someone guide us through. Thirty-three years ago, that’s the promise Pearl Jam made to us. Thirty-three years later, miraculously, it’s the one they’ve kept. To keep shouting until we hear. To keep shouting until we believe. Until their voice isn’t needed because we have joined in.
You are not alone.
You are loved.
Don’t give up.
Stip.
Great writing !!
I always look forward to your reviews on every new album cycle
This Dark Matter review may be one of the best
The Waiting for Stevie section was spot on, and I certainly shared that experience with that song
What a triumph
Also..Setting Sun
That one has been crushing me the last few days, especially the outro
Just brings me to tears
This album has hit with an urgency and importance that I haven't felt in a long time
Not just from PJ but in music in general
So great to hear our ( I assume) favorite band shine in such a big way
Thank you for your writing
This is such a great forum
It's been an amazing couple weeks leading up to this album release, and I've enjoyed reading all the posts and hearing everyone experience this release in real time.
Cheers
