Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[RockPusher]

Okay. Waiting for Stevie...


This song is fine

[Arthur Morgan]

Probably common knowledge by PJ radio just confirmed that PJ will be performing tomorrow on the Stern show along with an interview. Me getting excited!

[blueviper]

I feel like the first day in the studio watt sat them down and said something like

“Hey, you guys have a 30 plus career, and are in the rock and roll hall of fame. Let’s be rock stars on this album. “

[Ms Harmless]

Scared of Fear and React, Respond have been climbing for me. Such a cool one-two punch

React, Respond has so much more going on than it has any right too. It amazes me.

Yes, I loved the whole song but for the jarring chorus. I have since come around on it though and the song is another banger. I can not express how much I love Mikes last solo. It feels like that one note is traveling into the singularity of a black hole.

I get why the chorus vocals could be jarring, but to me this kind of desperate song is exactly the place for that Ed style and it helps elevate this to one if PJ’s best fast songs for me.

I love the approach on this chorus because it's one way he can get vocally "weird" at 60 (a la DTE) but without having to scream; go The Cramps!

[stip]

Okay, more Waiting for Stevie talk coming. But first. I REALLY cannot recommend this visualizer experience enough. Go to a computer (not a phone). Put on headphones. Maximize your screen. Raise the volume. Read the lyrics. It will be the best part of your days.

[blueviper]

I still feel as if Dark Matter and Gigaton do completely different things very well (and not so well) and are complimentary sides of Pearl Jam; I wouldn't want one without the other; Gigaton brought back some of the cerebral "seriousness" I'd been missing since Riot Act, but Dark Matter is a vast, vast improvement of the "pop" template they attempted in BS and LB (so surely their best pop album of all time -- that's where "best ever" comes into the conversations for me), making me much less worried about any future pop-leaning endeavours; they've nailed it, but I've needed both albums to convince me that my favourite band can still do near enough everything I loved them for

This is a nice take.

Agreed

[blueviper]

What’s weird is that listening to this via Spotify on my less than stellar tv in the study actually makes it sound awesome. I guess because rather songs are great.

[digster]

I still feel as if Dark Matter and Gigaton do completely different things very well (and not so well) and are complimentary sides of Pearl Jam; I wouldn't want one without the other; Gigaton brought back some of the cerebral "seriousness" I'd been missing since Riot Act, but Dark Matter is a vast, vast improvement of the "pop" template they attempted in BS and LB (so surely their best pop album of all time -- that's where "best ever" comes into the conversations for me), making me much less worried about any future pop-leaning endeavours; they've nailed it, but I've needed both albums to convince me that my favourite band can still do near enough everything I loved them for

This is a fantastic post, and helps sum up the connecting thread between two fairly disparate albums (Gigaton and Dark Matter isn't like comparing Backspacer and LB, which feel like variations stemming from a similar template). I think it does help clarify why Gigaton landed so hard for me (and still does), which is that I think at that point in their career, I hadn't lost faith yet that they could still find it in themselves to write a fantastic, transportive rock song, but I think at that point I'd probably lost confidence that the band that was found on Vitalogy, No Code and Binaural (in spirit if not in sound) was something they could find again. Gigaton changed my thinking on that.

But compared to three weeks ago, when I admittedly had some misgivings about this record considering the first two singles, it dramatically exceeded expectations. You can hear a lot of joy in the recordings (there's definitely heartbreak in the lyrics, but I'm not sure I've reached that point yet where that's permeating).

[blueviper]

Got to give.

[stip]

Waiting for Stevie, from the second it begins, it basically liquid catharsis. It's like they said 'what if the bridge of breath' but the whole song. 'what if the final two minutes of Alive, but the whole song.' 'What if the bridge of Corduory, but the whole song?'

And they fucking pull it off. And while it is still early days, I have listened to this song a LOT, and at least one in three times I start tearing up again. There are times I start full on crying, as it finds something else to pull out of me. I just can't get over how huge this song is, how encompassing, how much it invites you to just let everything go, how much it reaches in and just pulls shit out of you, in an act of joy. This song just finds that liminal moment between where things are not okay and then they are, plants a flag, and will not be moved.

And it is every second of the song. There is actually no build to this song. There's barely a bridge. There is no real distinction between chorus and verse. It is just THAT moment, for five glorious minutes.

[Ms Harmless]

I wish I knew how to talk about musical notation because there are so many slightly different things happening in the chord shapes and structures all over the album that are just the icing on the cake

[stip]

Almost every song on this album we make comparisons either to prior songs in the catalog, or other artists. This is well and proper. Pearl Jam is an amalgamation of influences and history and always have been.

But this song doesn't sound like any prior song in the catalog. It doesn't sound like another artist. This sounds like Pearl Jam, and only Pearl Jam. This is the essence of what they are, existing only within themselves.

[blueviper]

Okay, more Waiting for Stevie talk coming. But first. I REALLY cannot recommend this visualizer experience enough. Go to a computer (not a phone). Put on headphones. Maximize your screen. Raise the volume. Read the lyrics. It will be the best part of your days.

It’s awesome. I was wondering what they would do for the interlude. It didn’t disappoint.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[blueviper]

If they called it quits I couldn’t be mad. Setting sun is incredible

[Arthur Morgan]

Okay, more Waiting for Stevie talk coming. But first. I REALLY cannot recommend this visualizer experience enough. Go to a computer (not a phone). Put on headphones. Maximize your screen. Raise the volume. Read the lyrics. It will be the best part of your days.

Thanks again Stip! I just did exactly what you recommended. Wow


“You can be love”


We can all be love to one another and be loved by others despite us doing our best to be so hard on ourselves.

[stip]

Also,

YOU CAN BE LOVED BY EVERYONE
AND NOT FEEL, NOT FEEL LOVE

YOU CAN BE TOLD BY EVERYONE
AND NOT HEAR A WORD FROM ABOVE

SWALLOWED UP BY THE SOUND
CUTTING HOLES IN THE CLOUDS
FINDS HERSELF IN THE SONG
HEARS HER OWN VOICE RISING

YOU CAN BE LOVED BY EVERYONE
AND STILL NOT FEEL, NOT FEEL LOVE

YOU CAN RELATE, BUT STILL CAN'T STOP
OR CONQUER THE FEAR YOU ARE WHAT YOU'RE NOT

WOULD HAVE TO TAKE AN ACT OF FAITH
TO FIND RELIEF, AND ESCAPE THE BLAME

WORDS FOLLOW HER DOWN
NEEDS TO SHAKE EM OFF NOW
THIS GODFORSAKEN TOWN
DON'T DESERVE HER ANYHOW

CALLING ON A MESSENGER
AWAITING ON A FACE
THAT SHE COULD TRUST, A MESSENGER
FOR HER LOVE, HER LOVE

YOU CAN BE LOVED BY EVERYONE
AND NOT FEEL, FEEL LOVE

YOU CAN BE TOLD TO NOT GIVE UP
AND STILL NOT HEAR A WORD FROM ABOVE

YOU CAN'T TAKE, OR GIVE WHAT YOU GOT
DISSOLVE THE FEAR YOU ARE WHAT YOU'RE NOT

YOU CAN BE LOVED BY EVERYONE
AND NOT FEEL, FEEL LOVE

YOU CAN BE LOVED, YOU CAN BE LOVE.


These are the best lyrics on the album. I am entering into the running for Eddie's best set of lyrics ever, as a totality from start to finish.

[Ms Harmless]

Nice post Ms harmless

thank ye kindly

[Ms Harmless]

"one song and it was done"

*floor tom* *snare fill*

GOD

[stip]

Who Ever Said vs. Scared of Fear - I'll give this a tie. SOF is the better overall listen. But WES has higher highs
Superblood Wolfmoon vs. React/Respond - giving this to Superblood
Dance of the Clarivoyants vs. Wreckage - it's Dance, but Wreckage is a song to watch
Dark Matter vs. Quick Escape - it's Dark Matter, but barely.
Alright vs. Won't Tell - tie
Upper Hand vs. Seven O'Clock - tie. Still too much to process. Honestly, Seven OClock is so dense that part of me still feels like I'm unpacking elements of that one.
Never Destination vs. Waiting for Stevie - It's Waiting for Stevie, and it's the presence of a song like this, that moves beyond the star system (gigaton has 3 5 star songs for me, and a few songs that are within spitting distance) into something categorically other that lifts the rest of the record by virtue of its presence.

We will see what legs this has. It clearly needs to settle in, as I exit whatever space I'm in with this song. But it does have top 10 potential. It has top 5 potential. I don't THINK this will happen, but there's a world I can imagine where this becomes my favorite song of theirs if a portion of what I feel remains. That this is even a remote possibility in the year 2024 boggles the mind.

I am not saying this is the best thing Pearl Jam ever did. But if they were going to write a song that contains everything I value most from them (though not everything I value), it would be something like this. This is like the platonic form of what I want most.