release date: Apr. 19, 2024
format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Andrew Watt
label: Monkeywrench - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Scared of Fear" - 2. "React, Respond" - 3. "Wreckage" (live) - 4. "Dark Matter" - 5. "Won't Tell" - 10. "Got to Give" - 11. "Setting Sun"
12th studio album by old-time rockers, Pearl Jam following four full years after the predictable and rather redundant Gigaton (Mar. 2020) has been made with young upcoming producer Andrew Watt. Four years is usually quite a long time in between studio albums but in the case of Pearl Jam, it's actually seen as a short interval. And then of course, the band hasn't missed an opportunity to release other material. The live album Give Way (Apr. 2023) had previously been circulating as a popular Australian pirate material recording of a 1998 concert in Melbourne and it has been released under various titles such as From Down Under, Human Behaviour, and Brain of JJJ, and then also as of '98 as Give Way, a limited promotion release, which was quickly withdrawn as it hadn't been officially approved of. So, not until '23 it saw the light of day as an official release. The relative long intervals in between studio albums probably also derives from how this band has made it customary to release live recordings of its concert performances every now and then - or more frequently: 'every now', actually. In 2023, the band released no less than eight official so-called live bootleg albums, and in 2022 that number is much higher, which is quite telling in terms of how to make an 'extra' income on your live concerts these days. Bruce Springsteen is another artist who has understood this to near perfection.
Dark Matter pretty much feels like a return to the band's heydays with producer Brendan O'Brien, also in the arrangements where you find the sharp energy-fused songs blended with tracks of more ballad-oriented material, and Andrew Watt does exactly what was intended by introducing a new spark. Vedder sounds like you know him, and the band comes out as a vital and tight unit, which by no means makes you think of an act with limited potential. On the other hand, there's hardly anything new in the repertoire here, which in many ways builds on former releases and former peaks.
Without being a 'Backspacer, part 2' Dark Matter actually succeeds unexpectedly well and even betters the 2009 album, at least from my perspective, since I havent found the band this vital since that album, which was regarded as a step in the wrong direction by some. Yeah, "Wreckage" may sound like Pearl Jam blending this and that of their classic catalogue, but who really would expect them to sound like some other act?! And in that way the album unfolds like a Pearl Jam album 'should'.
Dark Matter is an unexpected warm revisit from old friends telling us they're still sound and alive.
