Dark Matter Album Review by us, the Fans

NJdPJ said:

I have spent some time with the album this past weekend and felt inspired to write my own review.  I saw another thread with the different 'official' published reviews, but though I would start a fan review thread. Here it goes..

I first want to start by saying that this is not ‘quintessential’ Pearl Jam to me.  Anything 2006 (Avocado) and before is in its own class to me that cannot and will not be touched by the band again.  My review here is taking DM for what it’s worth in regards to the older, transitional era of Pearl Jam (Backspacer -> DM).    

I am going to start with the ‘bad’ before I get into what I really like about this album.  First off, I am not a fan of the production on this album.  It’s way too compressed and glossy.  The drums do not sound good at all to me throughout.  I get the new wave production these days tend to lean towards a clean, crisp, polished sounding output- but this band absolutely shines when it’s completely not entirely of that direction.  Another gripe of mine is the fast, punk style stuff PJ has really leaned on since 2009 (i.e. Supersonic, The Fixer, Lightning Bolt, Who Ever Said, Superblood Wolf Moon, Mind your Manners, Never Destination, Ole, etc.)- this to me isn’t the strength of this band musically.  Don’t get me wrong, the DNA for these songs is there and some of my favorites (i.e Spin the Black Circle, Go, Blood, DTE, etc.) but for whatever reason these post-2006 fast, punk style songs don’t pack the same punch as those prior.  I get some of the same feel of exactly this in to two opening tracks, Scared of Fear and React/Respond (and also later on w/ Running).  There are not bad songs in my opinion (better than the opening two on Gigaton and probably comparable to the opening two tracks on both BS and LB), but again- these are fast, in your face and almost robotic in nature in a way.  I get that they as a band likes these kind of songs now (which is odd as they approach 60 y/o), but I really miss the (dare I say) ‘grunge’ builds from this band.  Where are the ‘Wash’, ‘Footsteps’, ‘Given to Fly’s’, ‘Nothing as It Seems’ type material.  I miss the mystery of this band where they would bring us along and build up a song that would just hook us in the moment we first heard it.  I think we know now what were going to get from them (formula has now been there for some time) in this new era and that’s this sort of ‘Dad Rock’ type of songs along with some slower stuff.  Lastly, I would say the one outlier on this album to me is ‘Something Special’.  I think Ed should have kept this for a solo project (a la Sleeping by Myself). The message is great and appreciate Ed paying ode to his daughters, but it just doesn’t fit on here to me.   

With all that said, there is some very good stuff on DM! The title track is a solid first single out of the gate!  The breakdown of “It’s strange..these days..when everyone else pays..for someone else’s mistake” is pretty powerful by the band collectively in that moment.  I enjoy it!  They slow it down with the third track on the album with ‘Wreckage’ which is a middle tier slower song for them.  It’s very ‘Tom Petty crossed with Bruce Springsteen’.  The highlight of this album for me so far is the trio of ‘Upper Hand’ , ‘Waiting for Stevie’ and the album closer ‘Setting Sun’.  I can say these 3 songs are some of their best work since 2006!  Upper Hand is that ‘Binaural’ build I was talking about above I have been missing from this band.  What an excellent song and it grabbed me at first listen.  “Waiting for Stevie’ is being called an ode to the early days, and while I can hear hints of that in it, it’s also the new era PJ I was hoping they would go directionally.  Another song that pulled me in immediately!  And lastly, the album closer ‘Setting Sun’- what a way to close DM!  This one is going to be a treat live (maybe an Opener!?).    

I need some more time with this album, but for me it certainly has some highlights outlined above that just overtake anything they have done on Gigaton and LB for me (maybe even BS).  It’s certainly a big step in the right direction for this band, who seem to be really excited and energized these days!  These guys still seem to have a fire under them to create art and deliver it to their fans!  We are lucky to still have them making new music and doing live shows!  We have to soak it all up while we can, because it isn’t going to last too much longer.  Looking forward to how these play out live . HAIL HAIL the lucky ones!

PJammer4life said:

It is the best album by a group of 60 year olds I have ever heard.