Dark Matter (song)

General Pearl Jam discussion.
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Dark Matter Initial Reactions

5 Stars
33
17%
4 Stars
92
48%
3 Stars
56
29%
2 Stars
8
4%
1 Star
3
2%
 
Total votes: 192

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Birds in Hell
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Birds in Hell »

tragabigzanda wrote:
digster wrote:Gigaton, for the most part, sounded to me like Eddie sounds now, I think the positive thing there was more in the songwriting; he found ways to highlight the positive aspects of what his voice can deliver now. These new songs sound like he's moving farther outside of that space, so the results end up sounding like they've got a lot of polish on them (DM) or kind of confused, like the end of Running; I love what he's doing at the beginning of the track, where he sounds really locked in on the verses, but I don't know what he's going for at the end.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Some people on Reddit pointing to time stamps on DM and Running saying they can hear autotune. Honestly, I haven't listened enough to say one way or another, and I kind of accept that virtually every singer today uses at least a little autotune. But I think your point is right on the money.
IIRC there was a wayward Ed moment on Life Wasted that was autotuned compared to the rough mix that was circulated.
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LetMeSleep
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by LetMeSleep »

McParadigm wrote:
LetMeSleep wrote:I'm with Trag on this about Ed's voice. Binaural and RA indicated that Ed's voice was going to age nicely but the screechy-ness now is too much.
lmao he was like 37 years old
Yeah I missed a word. Should be - but the screechy-ness now is too much.

I still think you missed my point though. Ed (IMO) would be better of in the NAIS/Insig/Ghost/Cropduster range than MYM or Running or even Comatose.
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McParadigm
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by McParadigm »

Yes, I do understand that that is what you think.
(patriotic choking noises)
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LetMeSleep
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by LetMeSleep »

Thanks, as your post was uncharacteristic.
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by blueviper »

Lol
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Monkey_Driven
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Monkey_Driven »

Ed sounded good to great on both Gigaton and Earthling. Can't say the same for these two new songs. They both employ quite a bit of production trickery that really marr the emotional weight of the delivery. He also makes some weird choices with pushing out that fake scream talking thing (ex. "outro to Running).
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

and yet, Earthling is definitely autotuned in spots as well
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tragabigzanda
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by tragabigzanda »

pearl jam sucks now
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Thu January 01, 2026 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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96583UP
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by 96583UP »

somehow this bothers me little about modern ed

it's the whole approach now, too many words/micro machines delivery, breathiness, strange pronunciations, all the tics and crutches, and his tendency toward random soap-star glam bridges

i guess it was the avocado era where he ruined his voice for good

so now this is what he has left to work with
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

I don't think the imperfections in his voice ruin the songs, the song-writing ruins the songs; I think all this bothers me less right now because I like these songs, and I do think he's fixed some of those tics and mannerisms in both Earthling and here; I don't think we'll ever get all of them fixed for every song on every album; it seems like with every fix comes a different problem; at the end of the day, it's the songs that count
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by oneway23 »

96583UP wrote:somehow this bothers me little about modern ed

it's the whole approach now, too many words/micro machines delivery, breathiness, strange pronunciations, all the tics and crutches, and his tendency toward random soap-star glam bridges

i guess it was the avocado era where he ruined his voice for good

so now this is what he has left to work with
The VH1 rock honors for the who is my personal demarcation point....that performance is staggering, but, there was a price
We still make records to be listened to — not that everyone will listen to a record track one to twelve in a row or side A or Side B — but we still make 'em in case somebody does want to listen to it like that, that's how we make em…
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

and I don't really think there's anything on these songs he couldn't naturally sing (but maybe he's gonna struggle singing them thirty or so nights in a row on tour)
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Ms Harmless »

I had my doubts how well he could naturally sing "Invincible" off Earthlings, there's a lot more vocal acrobatics going on there than on Dark Matter so far
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

oneway23 wrote:
96583UP wrote:somehow this bothers me little about modern ed

it's the whole approach now, too many words/micro machines delivery, breathiness, strange pronunciations, all the tics and crutches, and his tendency toward random soap-star glam bridges

i guess it was the avocado era where he ruined his voice for good

so now this is what he has left to work with
The VH1 rock honors for the who is my personal demarcation point....that performance is staggering, but, there was a price
Almost worth it !

Love those performances so much but I agree. He will write about that in his book someday
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Val
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Val »

96583UP wrote:somehow this bothers me little about modern ed

it's the whole approach now, too many words/micro machines delivery, breathiness, strange pronunciations, all the tics and crutches, and his tendency toward random soap-star glam bridges

i guess it was the avocado era where he ruined his voice for good

so now this is what he has left to work with
What’s a micro machines delivery?
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by coptheriotact »

a bit late on the fake streaming conversation... but i paid facebook once $10 to promote a music video exclusively to bangladesh? (i think) and i got 5000 reactions that were just bots and gibberish..

not many actual clicks.
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by Strat »

I do love the guitar interplay on this one
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stip
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Re: Dark Matter (song)

Post by stip »

pretty great song. running has made me appreciate it more
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