So, lastexit. I have not heard the new songs yet, but it seems as if this gentleman weaved in other things as he was afraid of it maybe being ripped off board? The language and vocabulary are actually impressive. I am interested to see if some of his word choices do fit songs, because as I gather from interviews and the first two singles... this album is DEEP, and would require words in the English language that are not typical, good, great, awesome, sick, fire... lol. Time will tell. Whenever I hear it... I'll give honest opinion from what my ears hear. Things are getting really interesting now, this has been a long wait... great but "stressful" promo leadup! Loved the observer, just wish there were like b sides or jams or something where we could've heard other aspects of Dark Matter, because... as someone really astute sings, "The waiting drove me mad!"
I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Pearl Jam were hunched over their instruments. Eddie Vedder slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Jeff Ament tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Pearl Jam's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.
The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. "Black eyed angels swam at me," Vedder sang like his dying words. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide." The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane's "Ole." The human part of me wept in awe.
The Italians surrounding me held their breath in communion (save for the drunken few shouting "Alieve!"). Suddenly, a rise of whistles and orgasmic cries swept unfittingly through the crowd. The song, "Dance of The Clairvoyants," was certainly momentous, but wasn't the response more apt for, well, "Alive?" I looked up. I thought it was fireworks. A teardrop of fire shot from space and disappeared behind the church where the syrupy River Arno crawled. Radiohead had the heavens on their side.
For further testament, Chip Chanko and I both suffered auto-debilitating accidents in the same week, in different parts of the country, while blasting "Rearviewmirror" in our respective Japanese imports. For months, I feared playing the song about car crashes in my car, just as I'd feared passing 18- wheelers after nearly being crushed by one in 1990. With good reason, I suspect Pear; Jam to possess incomprehensible powers. The evidence is only compounded with Dark Matter-- the rubber match in the band's legacy-- an album which completely obliterates how albums, and Pearl Jam themselves, will be considered.
Even the heralded Ten has been nudged down one spot in Valhalla. Dark Matter makes rock and roll childish. Considerations on its merits as "rock" (i.e. its radio fodder potential, its guitar riffs, and its hooks) are pointless. Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper. And not because it's jazz or fusion or ambient or electronic. Classifications don't come to mind once deep inside this expansive, hypnotic world. Ransom, the philologist hero of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, initially finds his scholarship useless in his new surroundings, and just tries to survive the beautiful new world.
This is an emotional, psychological experience. Dark Matter sounds like a clouded brain trying to recall an alien abduction. It's the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Pearl Jam hated being Pearl Jam, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Pearl Jam record yet.
"Scared of Fear" opens like Close Encounters spaceships communicating with pipe organs. As your ears decide whether the tones are coming or going, Eddie Vedder's Cuisinarted voice struggles for its tongue. "Scared of fear," Vedder belts in uplifting sighs. The first-person mantra of "There are two colors in my head" is repeated until the line between Vedder's mind and the listener's mind is erased.
Skittering toy boxes open the album's title song, which, like the track "Waiting For Stevie," shows a heavy Warp Records influence. The vocoder lullaby lulls you deceivingly before the riotous "Setting Sun." Mean, fuzzy bass shapes the spine as unnerving theremin choirs limn. Brash brass bursts from above like Terry Gilliam's animated foot. The horns swarm as Vedder screams, begs, "Turn it off!" It's the album's shrill peak, but just one of the incessant goosebumps raisers.
After the rockets exhaust, Radiohead float in their lone orbit. "Running" boils down "Indifference" and "Release" to their spectral essence. The string-laden ballad comes closest to bridging Vedder's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. "Lost in the tunnel and the tunnel's getting funneled like the sewage in the plumbing 'cause we left the ***ing water running," he sings in his trademark falsetto. The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode. "React, Respond," an ambient soundscape similar in sound and intent to Side B of Bowie and Eno's Low, calms after the record's emotionally strenuous first half.
The primal, brooding guitar attack of "Won't Tell" stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs. The lyrics seemingly taunt, "Won't tell," before revealing the more resigned sentiment, "The best you can is good enough." For an album reportedly "lacking" in traditional Pearl Jam moments, this is the best summation of their former strengths. The track erodes into a light jam before morphing into "Upper Hand." "Upper hand," Yorke cries over clean, uneasy arpeggios. The ending flares with tractor beams as Yorke is vacuumed into nothingness. The aforementioned "Waiting For Stevie" clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the "band." For all the noise to this point, it's uncertain entirely who or what has created the music. There are rarely traditional arrangements in the ambiguous origin. This is part of the unique thrill of experiencing Dark Matter.
Pulsing organs and a stuttering snare delicately propel "Got To Give." Vedder's breath can be heard frosting over the rainy, gray jam. Words accumulate and stick in his mouth like eye crust. "Got to give," he mumbles while Mike McCready squirts whale-chant feedback from his guitar. The closing "Something Special" brings to mind The White Album, as it somehow combines the sentiment of Lennon's LP1 closer-- the ode to his dead mother, "Julia"-- with Ringo and Paul’s maudlin, yet sincere LP2 finale, "Goodnight." Pump organ and harp flutter as Vedder condones with affection, "I think you're crazy." To further emphasize your feeling at that moment and the album's overall theme, Vedder bows out with "I will see you in the next life." If you're not already there with him.
The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Andrew Watt included) created this, it's clear that Pearl Jam must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.
What the hell is this?
This was a joke. The P4k Kid A review is ridiculous, so it has been integrated into music meme culture. There, I said something funny in the most unfunny way possible. To see the o.g. review, see link: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
p.s. Brent DiCrescenzo's writing is dangerous. Actually. This man gave NIN's The Fragile a 2.0 and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity a 3.5. Then in 2021, we have a Sunday review giving it an 8.6. It is impossible to hate Goodbye Sky Harbor. I rest my case.
I don't believe nothin', even if it's true. "That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York Other bands Guster - 8/12/2023 Guster - 3/30/2024 Guster - 8/11/2024 Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
So, lastexit. I have not heard the new songs yet, but it seems as if this gentleman weaved in other things as he was afraid of it maybe being ripped off board? The language and vocabulary are actually impressive. I am interested to see if some of his word choices do fit songs, because as I gather from interviews and the first two singles... this album is DEEP, and would require words in the English language that are not typical, good, great, awesome, sick, fire... lol. Time will tell. Whenever I hear it... I'll give honest opinion from what my ears hear. Things are getting really interesting now, this has been a long wait... great but "stressful" promo leadup! Loved the observer, just wish there were like b sides or jams or something where we could've heard other aspects of Dark Matter, because... as someone really astute sings, "The waiting drove me mad!"
I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Pearl Jam were hunched over their instruments. Eddie Vedder slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Jeff Ament tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Pearl Jam's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.
The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. "Black eyed angels swam at me," Vedder sang like his dying words. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide." The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane's "Ole." The human part of me wept in awe.
The Italians surrounding me held their breath in communion (save for the drunken few shouting "Alieve!"). Suddenly, a rise of whistles and orgasmic cries swept unfittingly through the crowd. The song, "Dance of The Clairvoyants," was certainly momentous, but wasn't the response more apt for, well, "Alive?" I looked up. I thought it was fireworks. A teardrop of fire shot from space and disappeared behind the church where the syrupy River Arno crawled. Radiohead had the heavens on their side.
For further testament, Chip Chanko and I both suffered auto-debilitating accidents in the same week, in different parts of the country, while blasting "Rearviewmirror" in our respective Japanese imports. For months, I feared playing the song about car crashes in my car, just as I'd feared passing 18- wheelers after nearly being crushed by one in 1990. With good reason, I suspect Pear; Jam to possess incomprehensible powers. The evidence is only compounded with Dark Matter-- the rubber match in the band's legacy-- an album which completely obliterates how albums, and Pearl Jam themselves, will be considered.
Even the heralded Ten has been nudged down one spot in Valhalla. Dark Matter makes rock and roll childish. Considerations on its merits as "rock" (i.e. its radio fodder potential, its guitar riffs, and its hooks) are pointless. Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper. And not because it's jazz or fusion or ambient or electronic. Classifications don't come to mind once deep inside this expansive, hypnotic world. Ransom, the philologist hero of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, initially finds his scholarship useless in his new surroundings, and just tries to survive the beautiful new world.
This is an emotional, psychological experience. Dark Matter sounds like a clouded brain trying to recall an alien abduction. It's the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Pearl Jam hated being Pearl Jam, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Pearl Jam record yet.
"Scared of Fear" opens like Close Encounters spaceships communicating with pipe organs. As your ears decide whether the tones are coming or going, Eddie Vedder's Cuisinarted voice struggles for its tongue. "Scared of fear," Vedder belts in uplifting sighs. The first-person mantra of "There are two colors in my head" is repeated until the line between Vedder's mind and the listener's mind is erased.
Skittering toy boxes open the album's title song, which, like the track "Waiting For Stevie," shows a heavy Warp Records influence. The vocoder lullaby lulls you deceivingly before the riotous "Setting Sun." Mean, fuzzy bass shapes the spine as unnerving theremin choirs limn. Brash brass bursts from above like Terry Gilliam's animated foot. The horns swarm as Vedder screams, begs, "Turn it off!" It's the album's shrill peak, but just one of the incessant goosebumps raisers.
After the rockets exhaust, Radiohead float in their lone orbit. "Running" boils down "Indifference" and "Release" to their spectral essence. The string-laden ballad comes closest to bridging Vedder's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. "Lost in the tunnel and the tunnel's getting funneled like the sewage in the plumbing 'cause we left the ***ing water running," he sings in his trademark falsetto. The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode. "React, Respond," an ambient soundscape similar in sound and intent to Side B of Bowie and Eno's Low, calms after the record's emotionally strenuous first half.
The primal, brooding guitar attack of "Won't Tell" stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs. The lyrics seemingly taunt, "Won't tell," before revealing the more resigned sentiment, "The best you can is good enough." For an album reportedly "lacking" in traditional Pearl Jam moments, this is the best summation of their former strengths. The track erodes into a light jam before morphing into "Upper Hand." "Upper hand," Yorke cries over clean, uneasy arpeggios. The ending flares with tractor beams as Yorke is vacuumed into nothingness. The aforementioned "Waiting For Stevie" clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the "band." For all the noise to this point, it's uncertain entirely who or what has created the music. There are rarely traditional arrangements in the ambiguous origin. This is part of the unique thrill of experiencing Dark Matter.
Pulsing organs and a stuttering snare delicately propel "Got To Give." Vedder's breath can be heard frosting over the rainy, gray jam. Words accumulate and stick in his mouth like eye crust. "Got to give," he mumbles while Mike McCready squirts whale-chant feedback from his guitar. The closing "Something Special" brings to mind The White Album, as it somehow combines the sentiment of Lennon's LP1 closer-- the ode to his dead mother, "Julia"-- with Ringo and Paul’s maudlin, yet sincere LP2 finale, "Goodnight." Pump organ and harp flutter as Vedder condones with affection, "I think you're crazy." To further emphasize your feeling at that moment and the album's overall theme, Vedder bows out with "I will see you in the next life." If you're not already there with him.
The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Andrew Watt included) created this, it's clear that Pearl Jam must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.
What the hell is this?
This was a joke. The P4k Kid A review is ridiculous, so it has been integrated into music meme culture. There, I said something funny in the most unfunny way possible. To see the o.g. review, see link: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
p.s. Brent DiCrescenzo's writing is dangerous. Actually. This man gave NIN's The Fragile a 2.0 and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity a 3.5. Then in 2021, we have a Sunday review giving it an 8.6. It is impossible to hate Goodbye Sky Harbor. I rest my case.
The 8.6 is still too low for Clarity, that album is amazing
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curmudgeoness
Brigadoon, foodie capital Posts: 3,261
“Some will hear a fiery rebirth after a series of more stilted or staid Pearl Jam collections. Some will hear a pale shadow of past glories. Yet some will hear all they need: a new Pearl Jam album, delivered as they approach their final act, sounding like nobody but themselves.“
Reading this, some will find an incisive critique. Some will find a review in desperate need of an editor. Yet most will ignore the reviews and buy the album, as they always do, forming their own opinions and arguing endlessly with others online about their personal takes.
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
….Dark Matter is many things. It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers. ‘Let us not fade,’ repeats Eddie at the end of elegiac closer Setting Sun. There seems little risk of that. Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make.
….Dark Matter is many things. It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers. ‘Let us not fade,’ repeats Eddie at the end of elegiac closer Setting Sun. There seems little risk of that. Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make.
Verdict: 5/5
Wow, I’m hearing the album for the first time tomorrow night (Australian time) at the cinema. I’m now beyond excited. Was nearly getting emotional reading that review, especially the last part.
….Dark Matter is many things. It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers. ‘Let us not fade,’ repeats Eddie at the end of elegiac closer Setting Sun. There seems little risk of that. Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make.
“Some will hear a fiery rebirth after a series of more stilted or staid Pearl Jam collections. Some will hear a pale shadow of past glories. Yet some will hear all they need: a new Pearl Jam album, delivered as they approach their final act, sounding like nobody but themselves.“
Reading this, some will find an incisive critique. Some will find a review in desperate need of an editor. Yet most will ignore the reviews and buy the album, as they always do, forming their own opinions and arguing endlessly with others online about their personal takes.
I don't know if I just haven't actually read them all that much, but Stereogum seems to have gotten a lot bitchier. I was reading another piece about metal yesterday and had to bail - just potshot after potshot. Super shrill.
Ive read a number of reviews now and not seen much said or written about Wont tell.......I cant help but think its been overlooked unfairly, its brilliant, would have made a great single and is as catchy as it gets
"After all these years, it’s still a delight to hear these five guys gather in a room and lock into the kind of invigorating rock song that elevates your heart an extra inch or two."
"After all these years, it’s still a delight to hear these five guys gather in a room and lock into the kind of invigorating rock song that elevates your heart an extra inch or two."
Yeah that one got me some goose bumps. I can’t WAIT till tomorrow night.
Speaking on the track Something Special - "It would be an unfeeling soul indeed not to be moved by the sound of a man who started his career mourning the father he never really knew, singing now, as the dad who has given everything."
"Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make."
Verdict: 5/5
Got some chills reading these lines!
~It's funny how things change so much, it's all state of mind~
October 1, Ohana Encore 2021 October 2, Ohana Encore 2021 May 9, Phoenix AZ 2022 September 2, St. Paul MN 2023
Ive read a number of reviews now and not seen much said or written about Wont tell.......I cant help but think its been overlooked unfairly, its brilliant, would have made a great single and is as catchy as it gets
Yes I think it’s the best song and a “hit” if they want
So, lastexit. I have not heard the new songs yet, but it seems as if this gentleman weaved in other things as he was afraid of it maybe being ripped off board? The language and vocabulary are actually impressive. I am interested to see if some of his word choices do fit songs, because as I gather from interviews and the first two singles... this album is DEEP, and would require words in the English language that are not typical, good, great, awesome, sick, fire... lol. Time will tell. Whenever I hear it... I'll give honest opinion from what my ears hear. Things are getting really interesting now, this has been a long wait... great but "stressful" promo leadup! Loved the observer, just wish there were like b sides or jams or something where we could've heard other aspects of Dark Matter, because... as someone really astute sings, "The waiting drove me mad!"
I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Pearl Jam were hunched over their instruments. Eddie Vedder slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Jeff Ament tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Pearl Jam's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.
The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. "Black eyed angels swam at me," Vedder sang like his dying words. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide." The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane's "Ole." The human part of me wept in awe.
The Italians surrounding me held their breath in communion (save for the drunken few shouting "Alieve!"). Suddenly, a rise of whistles and orgasmic cries swept unfittingly through the crowd. The song, "Dance of The Clairvoyants," was certainly momentous, but wasn't the response more apt for, well, "Alive?" I looked up. I thought it was fireworks. A teardrop of fire shot from space and disappeared behind the church where the syrupy River Arno crawled. Radiohead had the heavens on their side.
For further testament, Chip Chanko and I both suffered auto-debilitating accidents in the same week, in different parts of the country, while blasting "Rearviewmirror" in our respective Japanese imports. For months, I feared playing the song about car crashes in my car, just as I'd feared passing 18- wheelers after nearly being crushed by one in 1990. With good reason, I suspect Pear; Jam to possess incomprehensible powers. The evidence is only compounded with Dark Matter-- the rubber match in the band's legacy-- an album which completely obliterates how albums, and Pearl Jam themselves, will be considered.
Even the heralded Ten has been nudged down one spot in Valhalla. Dark Matter makes rock and roll childish. Considerations on its merits as "rock" (i.e. its radio fodder potential, its guitar riffs, and its hooks) are pointless. Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper. And not because it's jazz or fusion or ambient or electronic. Classifications don't come to mind once deep inside this expansive, hypnotic world. Ransom, the philologist hero of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, initially finds his scholarship useless in his new surroundings, and just tries to survive the beautiful new world.
This is an emotional, psychological experience. Dark Matter sounds like a clouded brain trying to recall an alien abduction. It's the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Pearl Jam hated being Pearl Jam, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Pearl Jam record yet.
"Scared of Fear" opens like Close Encounters spaceships communicating with pipe organs. As your ears decide whether the tones are coming or going, Eddie Vedder's Cuisinarted voice struggles for its tongue. "Scared of fear," Vedder belts in uplifting sighs. The first-person mantra of "There are two colors in my head" is repeated until the line between Vedder's mind and the listener's mind is erased.
Skittering toy boxes open the album's title song, which, like the track "Waiting For Stevie," shows a heavy Warp Records influence. The vocoder lullaby lulls you deceivingly before the riotous "Setting Sun." Mean, fuzzy bass shapes the spine as unnerving theremin choirs limn. Brash brass bursts from above like Terry Gilliam's animated foot. The horns swarm as Vedder screams, begs, "Turn it off!" It's the album's shrill peak, but just one of the incessant goosebumps raisers.
After the rockets exhaust, Radiohead float in their lone orbit. "Running" boils down "Indifference" and "Release" to their spectral essence. The string-laden ballad comes closest to bridging Vedder's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. "Lost in the tunnel and the tunnel's getting funneled like the sewage in the plumbing 'cause we left the ***ing water running," he sings in his trademark falsetto. The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode. "React, Respond," an ambient soundscape similar in sound and intent to Side B of Bowie and Eno's Low, calms after the record's emotionally strenuous first half.
The primal, brooding guitar attack of "Won't Tell" stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs. The lyrics seemingly taunt, "Won't tell," before revealing the more resigned sentiment, "The best you can is good enough." For an album reportedly "lacking" in traditional Pearl Jam moments, this is the best summation of their former strengths. The track erodes into a light jam before morphing into "Upper Hand." "Upper hand," Yorke cries over clean, uneasy arpeggios. The ending flares with tractor beams as Yorke is vacuumed into nothingness. The aforementioned "Waiting For Stevie" clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the "band." For all the noise to this point, it's uncertain entirely who or what has created the music. There are rarely traditional arrangements in the ambiguous origin. This is part of the unique thrill of experiencing Dark Matter.
Pulsing organs and a stuttering snare delicately propel "Got To Give." Vedder's breath can be heard frosting over the rainy, gray jam. Words accumulate and stick in his mouth like eye crust. "Got to give," he mumbles while Mike McCready squirts whale-chant feedback from his guitar. The closing "Something Special" brings to mind The White Album, as it somehow combines the sentiment of Lennon's LP1 closer-- the ode to his dead mother, "Julia"-- with Ringo and Paul’s maudlin, yet sincere LP2 finale, "Goodnight." Pump organ and harp flutter as Vedder condones with affection, "I think you're crazy." To further emphasize your feeling at that moment and the album's overall theme, Vedder bows out with "I will see you in the next life." If you're not already there with him.
The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Andrew Watt included) created this, it's clear that Pearl Jam must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.
What the hell is this?
This was a joke. The P4k Kid A review is ridiculous, so it has been integrated into music meme culture. There, I said something funny in the most unfunny way possible. To see the o.g. review, see link: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
p.s. Brent DiCrescenzo's writing is dangerous. Actually. This man gave NIN's The Fragile a 2.0 and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity a 3.5. Then in 2021, we have a Sunday review giving it an 8.6. It is impossible to hate Goodbye Sky Harbor. I rest my case.
The 8.6 is still too low for Clarity, that album is amazing
So, lastexit. I have not heard the new songs yet, but it seems as if this gentleman weaved in other things as he was afraid of it maybe being ripped off board? The language and vocabulary are actually impressive. I am interested to see if some of his word choices do fit songs, because as I gather from interviews and the first two singles... this album is DEEP, and would require words in the English language that are not typical, good, great, awesome, sick, fire... lol. Time will tell. Whenever I hear it... I'll give honest opinion from what my ears hear. Things are getting really interesting now, this has been a long wait... great but "stressful" promo leadup! Loved the observer, just wish there were like b sides or jams or something where we could've heard other aspects of Dark Matter, because... as someone really astute sings, "The waiting drove me mad!"
I had never even seen a shooting star before. 25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky. Pearl Jam were hunched over their instruments. Eddie Vedder slowly beat on a grand piano, singing, eyes closed, into his microphone like he was trying to kiss around a big nose. Jeff Ament tapped patiently on a double bass, waiting for his cue. White pearls of arena light swam over their faces. A lazy disco light spilled artificial constellations inside the aluminum cove of the makeshift stage. The metal skeleton of the stage ate one end of Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, on the steps of the Santa Croce Cathedral. Michelangelo's bones and cobblestone laid beneath. I stared entranced, soaking in Pearl Jam's new material, chiseling each sound into the best functioning parts of my brain which would be the only sound system for the material for months.
The butterscotch lamps along the walls of the tight city square bled upward into the cobalt sky, which seemed as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap. The staccato piano chords ascended repeatedly. "Black eyed angels swam at me," Vedder sang like his dying words. "There was nothing to fear, nothing to hide." The trained critical part of me marked the similarity to Coltrane's "Ole." The human part of me wept in awe.
The Italians surrounding me held their breath in communion (save for the drunken few shouting "Alieve!"). Suddenly, a rise of whistles and orgasmic cries swept unfittingly through the crowd. The song, "Dance of The Clairvoyants," was certainly momentous, but wasn't the response more apt for, well, "Alive?" I looked up. I thought it was fireworks. A teardrop of fire shot from space and disappeared behind the church where the syrupy River Arno crawled. Radiohead had the heavens on their side.
For further testament, Chip Chanko and I both suffered auto-debilitating accidents in the same week, in different parts of the country, while blasting "Rearviewmirror" in our respective Japanese imports. For months, I feared playing the song about car crashes in my car, just as I'd feared passing 18- wheelers after nearly being crushed by one in 1990. With good reason, I suspect Pear; Jam to possess incomprehensible powers. The evidence is only compounded with Dark Matter-- the rubber match in the band's legacy-- an album which completely obliterates how albums, and Pearl Jam themselves, will be considered.
Even the heralded Ten has been nudged down one spot in Valhalla. Dark Matter makes rock and roll childish. Considerations on its merits as "rock" (i.e. its radio fodder potential, its guitar riffs, and its hooks) are pointless. Comparing this to other albums is like comparing an aquarium to blue construction paper. And not because it's jazz or fusion or ambient or electronic. Classifications don't come to mind once deep inside this expansive, hypnotic world. Ransom, the philologist hero of C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet who is kidnapped and taken to another planet, initially finds his scholarship useless in his new surroundings, and just tries to survive the beautiful new world.
This is an emotional, psychological experience. Dark Matter sounds like a clouded brain trying to recall an alien abduction. It's the sound of a band, and its leader, losing faith in themselves, destroying themselves, and subsequently rebuilding a perfect entity. In other words, Pearl Jam hated being Pearl Jam, but ended up with the most ideal, natural Pearl Jam record yet.
"Scared of Fear" opens like Close Encounters spaceships communicating with pipe organs. As your ears decide whether the tones are coming or going, Eddie Vedder's Cuisinarted voice struggles for its tongue. "Scared of fear," Vedder belts in uplifting sighs. The first-person mantra of "There are two colors in my head" is repeated until the line between Vedder's mind and the listener's mind is erased.
Skittering toy boxes open the album's title song, which, like the track "Waiting For Stevie," shows a heavy Warp Records influence. The vocoder lullaby lulls you deceivingly before the riotous "Setting Sun." Mean, fuzzy bass shapes the spine as unnerving theremin choirs limn. Brash brass bursts from above like Terry Gilliam's animated foot. The horns swarm as Vedder screams, begs, "Turn it off!" It's the album's shrill peak, but just one of the incessant goosebumps raisers.
After the rockets exhaust, Radiohead float in their lone orbit. "Running" boils down "Indifference" and "Release" to their spectral essence. The string-laden ballad comes closest to bridging Vedder's lyrical sentiment to the instrumental effect. "Lost in the tunnel and the tunnel's getting funneled like the sewage in the plumbing 'cause we left the ***ing water running," he sings in his trademark falsetto. The strings melt and weep as the album shifts into its underwater mode. "React, Respond," an ambient soundscape similar in sound and intent to Side B of Bowie and Eno's Low, calms after the record's emotionally strenuous first half.
The primal, brooding guitar attack of "Won't Tell" stomps like mating Tyrannosaurs. The lyrics seemingly taunt, "Won't tell," before revealing the more resigned sentiment, "The best you can is good enough." For an album reportedly "lacking" in traditional Pearl Jam moments, this is the best summation of their former strengths. The track erodes into a light jam before morphing into "Upper Hand." "Upper hand," Yorke cries over clean, uneasy arpeggios. The ending flares with tractor beams as Yorke is vacuumed into nothingness. The aforementioned "Waiting For Stevie" clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the "band." For all the noise to this point, it's uncertain entirely who or what has created the music. There are rarely traditional arrangements in the ambiguous origin. This is part of the unique thrill of experiencing Dark Matter.
Pulsing organs and a stuttering snare delicately propel "Got To Give." Vedder's breath can be heard frosting over the rainy, gray jam. Words accumulate and stick in his mouth like eye crust. "Got to give," he mumbles while Mike McCready squirts whale-chant feedback from his guitar. The closing "Something Special" brings to mind The White Album, as it somehow combines the sentiment of Lennon's LP1 closer-- the ode to his dead mother, "Julia"-- with Ringo and Paul’s maudlin, yet sincere LP2 finale, "Goodnight." Pump organ and harp flutter as Vedder condones with affection, "I think you're crazy." To further emphasize your feeling at that moment and the album's overall theme, Vedder bows out with "I will see you in the next life." If you're not already there with him.
The experience and emotions tied to listening to Dark Matter are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax. It's an album of sparking paradox. It's cacophonous yet tranquil, experimental yet familiar, foreign yet womb-like, spacious yet visceral, textured yet vaporous, awakening yet dreamlike, infinite yet 48 minutes. It will cleanse your brain of those little crustaceans of worries and inferior albums clinging inside the fold of your gray matter. The harrowing sounds hit from unseen angles and emanate with inhuman genesis. When the headphones peel off, and it occurs that six men (Andrew Watt included) created this, it's clear that Pearl Jam must be the greatest band alive, if not the best since you know who. Breathing people made this record! And you can't wait to dive back in and try to prove that wrong over and over.
What the hell is this?
This was a joke. The P4k Kid A review is ridiculous, so it has been integrated into music meme culture. There, I said something funny in the most unfunny way possible. To see the o.g. review, see link: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
p.s. Brent DiCrescenzo's writing is dangerous. Actually. This man gave NIN's The Fragile a 2.0 and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity a 3.5. Then in 2021, we have a Sunday review giving it an 8.6. It is impossible to hate Goodbye Sky Harbor. I rest my case.
The 8.6 is still too low for Clarity, that album is amazing
I'm with you. Clarity has to be close to a 10
Clarity's like a 9.7.
I don't believe nothin', even if it's true. "That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York Other bands Guster - 8/12/2023 Guster - 3/30/2024 Guster - 8/11/2024 Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
“Dark Matter” is an album that combines the experimental tones of “No Code,” the raw aggression of “Vs.,” the skilled guitar work of “Yield,” and the mature sensibilities of “Gigaton.” It’s an amalgamation of everything that has made Pearl Jam such a dominant force in the music industry for over three decades. Longtime fans of the band will be relieved to find plenty to love here, and those who may have drifted away over the years would do well to give them another listen.
I don't believe nothin', even if it's true. "That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York Other bands Guster - 8/12/2023 Guster - 3/30/2024 Guster - 8/11/2024 Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
….Dark Matter is many things. It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers. ‘Let us not fade,’ repeats Eddie at the end of elegiac closer Setting Sun. There seems little risk of that. Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make.
Verdict: 5/5
Great review. Love this: “ The album’s curveball is Something Special. Presumably called so because a certain title had already been cherry-picked back in 1993, it’s a dedication to Eddie’s daughters.”
My Pearl Jam Road: 10/22/90 Seattle | 12/22/90 Seattle, Moore Theater | 9/29/92 Seattle, Magnusson Park, Drop in the Park | 9/5/93 The Gorge, with Neil Young and Blind Melon | 7/20/06 Portland, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with Sleater-Kinney | 7/22/06 The Gorge, 10/21/06 Mountain View, Shoreline Ampitheatre, Bridge School Benefit | 9/21/09 Seattle | 9/22/09 Seattle | 9/26/09 Portland, OR | 7/14/2011 Eddie Vedder, Portland, OR | 11/29/13 Portland, OR
It’s currently sitting at 86 on metacritic, that’s pretty universal acclaim. for anyone else who listens to Indiecast: think Steven Hyden wishes he had taken this in their fantasy album draft?
It’s currently sitting at 86 on metacritic, that’s pretty universal acclaim. for anyone else who listens to Indiecast: think Steven Hyden wishes he had taken this in their fantasy album draft?
Only 4 reviews though. P4K's 1.4 review coming soon
I don't believe nothin', even if it's true. "That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York Other bands Guster - 8/12/2023 Guster - 3/30/2024 Guster - 8/11/2024 Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
It’s currently sitting at 86 on metacritic, that’s pretty universal acclaim. for anyone else who listens to Indiecast: think Steven Hyden wishes he had taken this in their fantasy album draft?
He didn't even mention it! At the time I didn't really blame him. An 86 would be an easy 3rd rounder.
It’s currently sitting at 86 on metacritic, that’s pretty universal acclaim. for anyone else who listens to Indiecast: think Steven Hyden wishes he had taken this in their fantasy album draft?
He didn't even mention it! At the time I didn't really blame him. An 86 would be an easy 3rd rounder.
I wouldn’t have expected it to perform well for what they’re looking for, kinda cool that it might.
The new WATT interview for Spin is the one everyone’s been waiting on! Some in depth stuff about the production and how the album was made! Sounds like it was a very fun time for them all
Not sure if many have seen the Matt Cameron interview with Matt Pinfield but MC mentions they have a few songs that didn't make it on the record cause Watt wanted a concise 10 or 11 song record! Need that Lost Dogs 2 please!! https://youtu.be/LveEoEQyGHM?si=epuxkz7deivutsBk 59 minute mark is where he mentions it!
Post edited by primussucks on
Summerfest 7/8/95 Missoula 6/20/98 Alpine Valley 6/26/98 & 6/27/98 Alpine Valley 10/8/00
Champaign 4/23/03 Alpine Valley 6/21/03 Missoula 8/29/05
Chicago 5/16 & 17/06 Grand Rapids 5/19/06 Summerfest 6/29/06 & 6/30/06
Tampa 6/12/08
Chicago 8/23/09
Indy 5/7/10 Alpine Valley x2 2011 Wrigley 2013 Milwaukee 14 Telluride 16
Comments
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6656-kid-a/
p.s. Brent DiCrescenzo's writing is dangerous. Actually. This man gave NIN's The Fragile a 2.0 and Jimmy Eat World's Clarity a 3.5. Then in 2021, we have a Sunday review giving it an 8.6. It is impossible to hate Goodbye Sky Harbor. I rest my case.
"That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York
Other bands
Guster - 8/12/2023
Guster - 3/30/2024
Guster - 8/11/2024
Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
Reading this, some will find an incisive critique. Some will find a review in desperate need of an editor. Yet most will ignore the reviews and buy the album, as they always do, forming their own opinions and arguing endlessly with others online about their personal takes.
https://www.kerrang.com/amp/album-review-pearl-jam-dark-matter-eddie-vedder-andrew-watt
….Dark Matter is many things. It’s thrilling. It’s moving. It’s surprising. It’s a band still operating at the peaks of their powers. ‘Let us not fade,’ repeats Eddie at the end of elegiac closer Setting Sun. There seems little risk of that. Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make.
Verdict: 5/5
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14
Best opening one two since vs imo.
Stevie is so good too. Can't wait to blast it in my car
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
https://uproxx.com/indie/pearl-jam-dark-matter-album-review/
5/5
Speaking on the track Something Special - "It would be an unfeeling soul indeed not to be moved by the sound of a man who started his career mourning the father he never really knew, singing now, as the dad who has given everything."
"Pearl Jam said it took three weeks to record Dark Matter. In truth, it’s the kind of record that takes a lifetime to make."
Verdict: 5/5
Got some chills reading these lines!
October 1, Ohana Encore 2021
October 2, Ohana Encore 2021
May 9, Phoenix AZ 2022
September 2, St. Paul MN 2023
@CROJAM95
Thanks for posting!
"That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York
Other bands
Guster - 8/12/2023
Guster - 3/30/2024
Guster - 8/11/2024
Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
https://montrealrocks.ca/album-review-pearl-jam-dark-matter/
“Dark Matter” is an album that combines the experimental tones of “No Code,” the raw aggression of “Vs.,” the skilled guitar work of “Yield,” and the mature sensibilities of “Gigaton.” It’s an amalgamation of everything that has made Pearl Jam such a dominant force in the music industry for over three decades. Longtime fans of the band will be relieved to find plenty to love here, and those who may have drifted away over the years would do well to give them another listen.
"That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York
Other bands
Guster - 8/12/2023
Guster - 3/30/2024
Guster - 8/11/2024
Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
for anyone else who listens to Indiecast: think Steven Hyden wishes he had taken this in their fantasy album draft?
"That's a vibe" - Ryan Miller
9/11/2022 - Madison Square Garden, New York
Other bands
Guster - 8/12/2023
Guster - 3/30/2024
Guster - 8/11/2024
Built to Spill - 9/1/2024
59 minute mark is where he mentions it!
Missoula 6/20/98
Alpine Valley 6/26/98 & 6/27/98
Alpine Valley 10/8/00
Champaign 4/23/03
Alpine Valley 6/21/03
Missoula 8/29/05
Chicago 5/16 & 17/06
Grand Rapids 5/19/06
Summerfest 6/29/06 & 6/30/06
Tampa 6/12/08
Chicago 8/23/09
Indy 5/7/10
Alpine Valley x2 2011
Wrigley 2013
Milwaukee 14
Telluride 16