REVIEW: Pearl Jam “Dark Matter”

Pearl Jam – Dark Matter

Even if we’re here now, we all come from different places musically. Though I listened to Tracy Chapman in high school and dabbled in Uncle Tupelo in college, my young adult self was all about hard rock and grunge. Pearl Jam’s Ten hit dead-center between the two, and it’s still in my all-time album list. So when a band that’s roughly paralleled my adult life releases a new record, I’m intrigued. As it turns out, the band that once recorded “Immortality” as a question, not a brag, is openly asking what mortality and legacy mean – not as rock stars, but as husbands, fathers and human beings. Dark Matter finds Pearl Jam as guitar-gnashing as ever, but writing from a place where they can see the end, with maybe a glimpse of what’s beyond it.

The brief musical intro at the top of Dark Matter is, appropriate to anyone who musically came of age around 1991, a mash of 80s sci-fi keyboards, courtesy of producer Andrew Watt and Josh Klinghoffer, a touring member of the band. Quickly enough, “Scared of Fear” kicks into guitar-and-drum rock, backed by a fierce Jeff Ament bass riff, with Eddie Vedder singing of days gone by – “We used to laugh/We used to sing/We used to dance/We had our own scene” – before admitting that for him – like us – those days are fleeting – “I’ll give, but I can’t give up/I’ll live, not long enough.”

Across the length of Dark Matter, as Vedder growls and Mike McCready rips off furious guitar solos, it seems odd to categorize these guys as “elder statesmen.” It feels like (to me, anyway) that it was just yesterday that Pearl Jam was backing Neil Young, first at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, then on Young’s Mirror Ball. But the core of Pearl Jam is now roughly 10 years older than Young was then. The boys have grown up, and that youthful fury is distilled into songs like “Upper Hand,” a pensive number which begins with a longer keyboard intro and addresses death very directly – ‘The distance to the end/Is closer now/Than it’s ever been” – before speeding up and collapsing upon itself, showing that these old boys have plenty left in the tank. The spiky, punky “Running” takes that even further, with Ament’s throbbing bassline bested only by Matt Cameron pounding his drums through the damn floor, even as Vedder wonders at his own exhaustion – “I’m feeling done in, it’s rather stunning.”

There are two “musts” on an aging (yet vibrant) rockstar album – remembering friends since gone, and passing the torch to the next generation. Pearl Jam hits both markers on Dark Matter. “Wreckage,” the most recently released single, is a heartlandish stylistic nod to Tom Petty – jangly guitars, piano, and an emotional distance and complexity found in the late songwriter’s best work – “If you’re feeling the leaving/I can’t make you stay.” “Something Special” is slower and softer – imagine a cross between the band’s cover of “Last Kiss” and Vedder’s work on the Into the Wild soundtrack.The song itself is a tribute to the next genetic round of Jammers, particularly Vedder’s daughters – “Do it yourself/You’re not the type to need a man” – with the true Dad-rock realization that matters are out of his hands – “You’re the one and only you/We done…all we can do.” Slow-build album capper “Setting Sun” spans the time from empty nest to end of (our) time, with the band finding itself not yet ready to drop off – “We can become…one last setting sun/Am I the only one hanging on?” Keep cranking out records like this one, guys – we’re not fading on you yet.

Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Dark Matter” – the title track was the first single off the record, and it’s a bruising reminder that, even as they’re circling 60(!), Pearl Jam is still making vital guitar rock.

Dark Matter was produced by Andrew Watt, recorded by Paul LaMalfa and Marco Sonzini, mixed by Serban Ghenea, engineered by Bryce Bordone and mastered by Matt Colton. All songs written by Pearl Jam and Andrew Watt (co-write on “Something Special” goes to Josh Klinghoffer). Pearl Jam is Eddie Vedder (lead and background vocals, guitar, piano), Jeff Ament (bass, guitar, baritone guitar), Mike McCready (guitar, piano), Stone Gossard (guitar) and Matt Cameron (drums, percussion). Additional musicians on the album include Klinghoffer (guitar, keyboards, piano) and Watt (guitar, keyboards, piano).

Go here to order Dark Matter (out April 19): https://shop.pearljam.com/

Check out tour dates here: https://pearljam.com/tour