As grunge rock rose to fame in the early 1990s, Pearl Jam outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries and is considered one of the most influential bands from that decade. Mainly gaining its devoted fans from the album “Ten,” Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream and became one of the best-selling alternative albums. The band’s lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar) and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals and guitar), as well as Matt Cameron (drums), who joined in 1998. The Seattle Grunge Veterans choose to abandon the pursuit of something timeless and explore the musical relevance of today in their new album released last Friday.
“Dark Matter” releases on April 19, 2024, and fans have been waiting with anticipation to check out the band’s twelfth studio album. On this aging (yet vibrant) rockstar album, Pearl Jam attempts to prove itself in a revolving musical industry with punk-rock as a dying art.
“Dark Matter” takes its listener on an hour and five-minute journey made up of 11 songs. Pearl Jam’s albums normally consist of 11-15 tracks, but this new spiky, punky album is as guitar-gnashing as ever. Little on “Dark Matter” is likely to enchant Generation Z, but it’s more appropriate to anyone who musically came of age around 1991 and fancies a mash of 80s sci-fi keyboards.
The album opens with traversing alt-rock sounds with “Scared of Fear.” The sharp and scratchy guitars that tear through the album opener kick off “Dark Matter” with an amazing start. As listeners make their way through the eclectic water that Pearl Jam provides, it seems to have mellowed its funk tendencies slightly while still providing nostalgic echoes from the 90s. The similarly heavy tracks “React Respond” and “Running” elicit the same feelings of bland anonymity that plagued Gigaton. Though there are moments during this journey where listeners are confused by such extreme tones, the album in its entirety exudes a balanced rhythm that reeks of sentiments given in early 2000s mid-tempo pop rock.
“Wreckage,” the album’s angsty but layered third track, veers into tuneful, Americana-adjacent territory, becoming ever so slightly muddy. With the use of gentle compositions by the electric guitar to construct an infectious melody, Pearl Jam plays with expressions of the unfamiliar and emphasizes familiarity with earnestness. The lyrics “My heart got calloused / I don’t wanna make that excuse / It’s hard but you’re worth it” make this claim reign true as Pearl Jam’s rhythm section and guitars feed off one another.
The youthful fury that lingers from the 90s spills into songs like “Upper Hand” — a pensive number that begins with a longer keyboard intro and addresses death very directly. Lyrics like “The distance to the end / Is closer now / Than it’s ever been” are exemplary of ideas like this.
While floating on acoustic and electric guitars, Pearl Jam turns somewhat melancholy tunes into an upbeat light. These old boys are just trying to prove they still have plenty left in the tank despite the constant alterations to the music industry.
Though not the most appreciated by Pearl Jam fanatics, “Something Special” pulls a slower and softer spin on the rest of the album as it is juxtaposed with songs such as “Won’t Tell” or “Got to Give.” “Something Special” is a cross between the band’s cover of “Last Kiss” and Vedder’s work on the “Into the Wild” soundtrack. McCready rips off furious guitar solos throughout the album, but his work in “Something Special” is a gust of tenderness like a raw wound just brushing across the surface.
“Waiting for Stevie,” is as anthemic as anything the band has put out in the last 30 years. Vedder’s singing on the contradictions of love and stardom are given propulsion by Cameron’s drums and makes way for McCready’s muscular guitar outro. While the song doesn’t break new ground in the band’s oeuvre, it’s a stirring reminder that these old guys can still make your heart beat a little faster.
Indeed, much of the record has this feel of elegy. The songs cover broken relationships and are steeped in the innermost thoughts of broken people. It can be uncomfortable to hear such lyrics emanate from a band whose members are now in their early 60s, but Pearl Jam has never been a group that strove for comfort. If you love swarming and sprawling ‘90s hard rock jams, Pearl Jam is for sure the band for you. But if you’re raring to be aurally bearhugged and beset by a hard-won attack of sentimentality — “Dark Matter” is for you.
Overall Rating: 3/5