Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
The year was 1992. The sun hadn’t stopped beating down on the asphalt of the parking lot at the Great Woods Performing Arts Center in Mansfield, MA. It was August, August 8th to be exact. My four buddies and I had just walked from the parking lot into the venue. Great Woods is one of those old classic amphitheaters built in the 1970s and 80s. It’s grand opening was June 13th, 1986, but to me, it seemed as if it’d been there for decades. There was not a cloud in the sky on this particular day. The opening band, Lush, hit the stage promptly at 2:00pm. It was going to be a long night with seven bands on the main stage. For this was the Lollapalooza tour of 1992.
I wasn’t old enough to buy alcohol legally, so I spent the first 45 minutes of Lush’s set just wandering around the lawn. Remember lawns at concert venues? That was back before the corporations (here I go sounding like an old d bag) started putting their stamp on every entertainment venue, maximizing every inch by tearing up the lawn and putting in seats, only to charge full price even though you were still at the back of the venue….(sigh). Anyways back to my point, I was wandering around the lawn, just people watching, when out of the corner of my eye, a man with a brown corduroy jacket appeared. He was wearing cargo shorts and a black Chicago White Sox hat backwards. Can any of you guess who it was?
In late 1991 my obsession with hair metal bands had started to wane a bit. I had heard about several bands coming out of Seattle, Washington that were creating a legitimate buzz around the industry. The sound was different. The band members didn’t wear leather. That was sort of refreshing to me at the time. They just wore jeans, t-shirts and of course those famous flannels from that decade. We all had one. And many times, the band members just walked up on stage, played their music and went home. There wasn’t this showmanship that had previously drawn me in throughout the 80s during huge rock shows.
The music was raw, void of ballads (most of the time) and was mixed with more punk and blues than the hard rock/heavy metal genres. This was new to me. It was exciting. It felt grown up (I know that sounds silly) but I was relatively young still and hadn’t yet gotten my driver’s license. Therefore, I felt like I was hanging with the college kids when this stuff came on the radio.
I went over to the man in the White Sox cap and tapped him on the back of his shoulder. He was talking to someone else and I just rudely interrupted. Aside from about three of us, it was clear no one else knew who this guy was. He turned around and looked at me. I was astonished at how short he was,….shorter than me for crying out loud and I was only 5’10”. I remember when I started to speak, I couldn’t control my words. It was like my mouth was just moving but my brain was like, “Hey…I just work here…I’m not in charge of this guy”…
Thankfully, I managed to mutter a few words that made some sense, “Hey Eddie, sorry to interrupt your conversation but I really just wanted to come over and tell you how much I enjoy your music”. Yes, it was Eddie Vedder, lead singer of the act going on second that day, after Lush. Lead singer for a brand new, hardly one year old band called Pearl Jam.
Man, to be on the Lollapalooza tour when you haven’t even been a band for one year, that’s good music. That’s also knowing the right people too, I guess. More on that later!
Eddie gave me a full-sized smile as he shook my hand and thanked me for my kind words. I can remember he pointed at my black Pearl Jam t-shirt and said, “Thanks a lot for supporting us, man. We plan to put on a great show tonight!” Then he asked me what time it was. I glanced at my watch, telling him it was 2:44. And before I could bring my wrist back down to my waist, Eddie let out a “Oh shit! Sorry man! I gotta go! I have to be on stage in 10 minutes!”
About 12 minutes later, Pearl Jam walked up on stage. I can remember Eddie saying, “This is the last time we’ll be in Boston for a while so tonight we’re gonna f’in let it all out”. He stomped his foot as his torso shifted downwards, his hair flying everywhere with microphone in hand as the band whipped into Even Flow. I was in heaven. Pure heaven.
Fast forward thirty-two years later. Picture yourself getting out of a time machine. You’ve transported to the future. Thankfully, most of the band members in Pearl Jam are still alive, pushing 60 or very close to it. Albums such as Ten, Vs, and Vitalogy, are locked in the history books as some of the greatest rock albums ever recorded. What I find comforting is, out of all the Seattle powerhouses of the early 90s, Pearl Jam still stands,…..and they stand tall!
As a die-hard fan in the early 90s, later albums such as No Code, Yield, Binaural and Riot Act did not resonate much, but maybe I just need to go back. In 2013, the band released their tenth studio album Lightning Bolt, which echoed through my car speakers for about a year. It’s a solid album, definitely worth a spin for those of you wondering what PJ has been up to since the early 90s.
But the real reason I am writing this review is to shed light on their latest release, 2024’s Dark Matter. I chose this album to review, not just to change it up (I have been reviewing a lot of albums that are 30-40 years old lately), but to shed light on a band that has truly succeeded at recording a GREAT album, thirty-three years after the release of their first album.
Many bands fade out. They continue to tour as they can just live off their first 3 or 4 records. But Pearl Jam continues to release new, quality music.
Dark Matter is Pearl Jam’s twelfth studio album. Released on April 19, 2024, it was produced by Andrew Watt through Pearl Jam’s own private record label Monkeywrench Records with help from major label, Republic Records. Andrew Watt was a completely different producer than who Pearl Jam was used to. Watt helped the band focus on the music more, and less of the production. He was also much younger than the band members at age 33, and the first producer since recording their first album, Ten, to really challenge them. This memory makes the band members laugh as they recall this brash “kid” walking into the studio with heavy enthusiasm, almost like a kid in a candy store, continually making recommendations to the band that they try different approaches to writing and recording.
Watt has produced albums for artists inside and out of hard rock and heavy metal, including pop artists Justin Bieber, Post Malone, and Miley Cyrus. So, this was a different approach for the guys in Pearl Jam. But Watt had also produced Iggy Pop, Ozzy and The Rolling Stones, and he is proven he can work with any artist within any genre. Watt is also the guitarist of The Earthlings, the backing band for Eddie Vedder’s solo band.
The early recording sessions for Dark Matter began at Andrew Watt’s home basement studio. Halfway through the sessions, Watt’s basement was accidentally flooded. Much of the band’s equipment was damaged. Without a plan, the band began to look for an alternate studio to finish the recording. Famed producer Rick Rubin heard about the flood and invited them to record at his studio, the famed Shangri-La in Malibu, California. Shangri-La has a deep, deep history, dating back to 1958 when the ranch was built by a Mexican American actress named Margo (Like Madonna, Margo had one name). It was used for filming Hollywood movies and TV shows throughout the 60s. In 1974, The Band, made the place more popular by renting it out to record their album, Northern Lights – Southern Cross. Fast forward to 2011, Rick Rubin was able to snag the famed recording venue when it was listed for sale. Rubin was said to have paid $2 million for it, a far cry from where it was originally listed by the owner at $4.1 million earlier that year.
Before the studio flood, the band was able to record Dark Matter’s first two tracks, Scared of Fear and React, Respond. Scared of Fear opens the album. Personally, I think this track is heavy and sturdy with a convincing chorus, but it reminds me of some of the tracks from their 2020 release Gigaton, durable but not memorable. The same goes for React, Respond, a track with a heavy-duty bass line opener with a solid build, but doesn’t stick in my mind as a PJ classic. Of course, anything heard through high quality Bose headphones leaves little to overlook many times.
The party on Dark Matter really starts during track three, Wreckage. This song grabbed my neck, took me on a spin around the black circle and then spit me out after, leaving me wondering what the hell just happened.
The opening guitar is catching and the lyrics to the song can be interpreted in many different ways. What’s interesting about reviewing a newly released album, is there is less data, fewer interviews and little news out there to research about it. One article I found noted Eddie wrote the song about our former President’s desperation to win back the White House, but it is also apparent he refuted that claim during a late April 2024 interview on the Howard Stern show. The truth is, Eddie doesn’t recall what he was thinking when he wrote these lyrics. He noted he mostly wrote in real time when the band was just playing. He would hum, get the melody and then figure out the words later.
Either way, the song is memorable. Real memorable. It’s up there with some of their best. And I think many people can relate in their own way to the lyrics, “Combing through the Wreckage”. I think most of us have done that if not literally, then certainly figuratively.
The album’s title track appears to have the highest number of streams, at least according to Spotify, arguably the most popular music streaming service on the planet today. Either way, that’s not what’s important to me. And being a podcaster myself, I am a little skeptical on the accuracy of these numbers. The title track, Dark Matter, is weighty. I would describe this song in a similar light as Eddie described the entire album. He noted a lot of the feedback has been the album is “soaring but grounded”, and “in your face but also on its back foot”. This wasn’t manifested, per se. It was just by accident.
The song contains another meaty bass line by Jeff Ament. Eddie sings some very powerful and influential words in this song, “When everybody else pays, for someone else’s mistake”.
The party really continues with the song, Won’t Tell. Although perhaps more “radio-friendly”, I would put this track up there in the band’s top 20, perhaps their Top 10 of all time. Yes, PJ fans, I said it! About a week or so after the album’s release, I was driving home from a Black Crowes concert. I decided to play this song in my car for a friend, thinking perhaps it would resonate with him. As I drove down my old childhood highway, Route 9, the chorus grew and grew until it finally peaked, just as I was driving past the street I grew up on. I can remember a tear coming down my eye, just a small one. It was a tear of joy. For this song just emanates joy. I don’t think my friend sitting shotgun was aware, but it happened. I knew, then, I had fallen in love with another Pearl Jam song, and I was elated because it’d been thirty years since this band had kicked me in the head like this!
It was interesting to learn that Jeff Ament and Eddie wrote this song in a very non-conventional way. Jeff and Andrew Watt handed Ed the lyric sheet during a recording session. Ed built the structuring of how he sang the song without ever hearing the music written for it. Ament commented it was the most exciting way he has ever written a song because he got to watch Ed just make up its vocal structure in a completely organic way. For additional songs on the album, Eddie would frequently stay up until 4am writing, many times just to keep up with the speed of the band’s recording with Watt.
The intro and foundation of the track, Upper Hand, is stimulating. A U2 like intro the Edge like guitar and synth sound builds and builds until the verse kicks in. Eddie really does his thing here on this track, singing his heart out. There’s a darkness and mystery to Upper Hand, that I cannot quite put my finger on (see that pun!). Magically pieced together, the song builds to an eventual climax (stay with me). The tempo speeds up as McCready solos over Ed’s lyrics, “Carry Me Home”.
A song that is getting a lot of traction on the album is, Waiting for Stevie. I enjoy hearing the rattle of Jeff Ament hitting the strings on his bass. It reminds me of a sound I once found as a young teen and could never part with. It usually happens when you have the treble higher than usual.
The fun story behind Waiting for Stevie, is Eddie and Andrew Watt were literally “waiting” for Stevie Wonder to arrive and record on Ed’s solo album for The Earthlings. The story goes, while recording his solo album, Eddie wanted to have different drummers on the record. Eddie commented that Stevie Wonder always had the best drummers on all his albums. This prompted them to invite Stevie to record some harp/harmonica on the record. While they were waiting in the studio for Stevie to join them, they came up with the name, Waiting for Stevie.
That’s how organic the recording sessions were for Dark Matter. Despite the title, the song really has nothing to do with waiting for Stevie, or waiting for anyone, nonetheless. It’s really a story of a young woman who was able to connect to a feeling of love, joy and happiness through sound, and connecting to other people also listening to that sound.
For the words:
“You could 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 sounds, cutting holes in the clouds. Finds herself in the song, hears her own voice rising”, really point to perhaps one of the leading causes of depression and suicide.
I think the moral of the story here is Eddie is singing about people, many people who can literally be loved by everyone but still feel like they haven’t been loved by anyone. That is perhaps one of the prime definitions of loneliness.
The song Running harkens back to those punkier, heavier PJ tracks. A good workout song for sure, but I wouldn’t pop this one in my top 10 or 20, but still a solid track.
For the song Something Special, Eddie was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground song After Hours, which is a solo acoustic song performed and sung by Velvet Underground’s drummer Maureen Tucker, and kind of has that “My Rollercoaster”, vibe, the lead song from the Motion Picture Soundtrack to the film, Juno (Kimya Dawson is her name I think). Eddie wrote Something Special as he was thinking about his journey raising his children and how that has been the main focus of this life. As he wrote, he reflected on the moment when they leave the nest and how scary it is for the parent, and the child.
Something Special is a sweet song, a nice train stop along the railroad track, but the album picks back up again on Got to Give. I can feel this one live in concert. You can sense the buildup. From the light acoustic guitar at the beginning, like you’re running through an English garden, to the hard drums and gritty 90s guitar during the verse. Eddie’s voice gets meatier and meatier as the track progresses. And the apex of the song happens about three minutes and twelve seconds in. As the band slowly picks up the tempo, it slowly, slowly builds and builds. As Eddie sings over and over... “something’s got to give”, I am on a cloud. Every inch of skin is covered in those things they call “goosebumps”. I call them “happy bumps”. I am floating. I am smiling. I am 14 again and remembering hearing this band for the first time and thinking, “don’t be afraid, G…everything is going to be okay. Just stick with music for the rest of your life and everything is going to be okay”.
The review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the album’s closer, the Mariano Rivera (or as I like to say, The Jonathan Papelbon) of the album, Setting Sun. A perfect closer to an album. Very much in the pocket for Pearl Jam. Like its predecessors, Release and Indifference, the respective closers for their first two albums, Ten and Vs., they are mellow, melodic and can very much be considered ballads. Heavy-duty ballads at that.
Dark Matter is the strongest Pearl Jam album since 1994’s Vitalogy.
Listen and find out for yourself.
