but obviously in reality, all they have to do is please me personally

I like this take a lot. I used to have all the PJ albums on vinyl, including some rare versions. Then I hit hard times and had to sell it. Now I have Vs and Yield in the 45 RPM versions- I just got them the same day Dark Matter arrived. Haven't spun them yet, but I'm really looking forward to Yield especially in the context of this new 5* (to me) album.

The Vs and especially Yield remasters are the most audiophile friendly things this band has ever put out.

I guess it’s probably a matter of preference or convenience in how a person chooses to listen and consume music. Those preferences then dictate and shape how someone may rank albums.

I’m a vinyl guy at heart. It’s probably why I think all this talk about re-tracking albums to your likings or which songs are skippable are silly conversations. In my opinion I think a record should be played from beginning to end to most sincerely grasp what the artist intended.

I consider Vitalogy my third favorite album from the band. Yield and Binaural are tied for first depending on my current tastes. Without Stupid Mop it’s probably #1. When I listen to Vitalogy on vinyl I always make sure to play that song. It puts another level of uneasiness on an already uneasy album. It makes for an even more challenging listen, which I think was what the intended effect was from Eddie who masterminded this album. It was a calculated choice. Pretending Vitalogy ends with Immortality seems like cheating.

How many of you who rank Vitalogy highly would feel the same way about the album if you had to listen to stupid mop every single time? I bet it’s ranking would change at least a little for most.

There’s no “right” way to listen to music, but I think this heavily skews how these albums are received. I don’t think Binaural would sit where it does with me if I had it on as background noise while doing other things. I do think it’s neck and neck with Yield as an active listen.

Vitalogy is number 1 for me because it's a remarkably consistent artistic, conceptual statement, including the weird stuff

Stupid Mop is a song whose inclusionI understand, but never want to listen to. If I do, it feels like homework. And that it has a point, and that it's inclusion can be justified, doesn't change the fact that it is an unpleasant listening experience. Bugs is uneasy as well, but I really enjoy it for what it is. And while Stupid Mop reinforces, I don't know that it adds. Immortality is just the more poignant place to end.

It's an interesting thought experiment, Matty. If I had to listen to Stupid Mop each time it certainly dips below Ten at least (into the number 2 slot). But leaving it as the final track makes it easy to skip, and I conceptualize it more like a hidden track.

Truth.

number 2 sounds much better to me...i stopped the first one 1/4 way through to start the other one then didnt want to stop listening because it sounded so much clearer and punchier?.

i finally ripped my cd to flac today and it seemed to be better with the clipping but then in my car WFS came on and again especially in the beginning its just awful. i dont know what to do. its such a good song and its being taken down a notch due to the loudness, buzzing, clipping BS. im waiting for your mix of that the most. dont let me down dammit!

Vitalogy was one for me for along time . I was not seeing its faults. I was viewing it as a 10 song album. It not 10 song album. If imagine my self listening to it I get bored . It's like going for a 1 hour drive and needing to get gas 3 time then finally getting to your favorite record store only to find Bill Cosby records in stock. Yes of course your drove by all kinds of cool things but what your left with is a STUPID MOP AND Bill Cosby.

@Stip, I think part of the reason I’m hesitant to bump Dark Matter into the top 6-8 of their catalog if I was forced to hard rank the albums is because of how accessible it feels. Typically for me at least, the more accessible a Pearl Jam album is initially the more quickly it’s lost my interest. Their more challenging albums have been more rewarding when they finally clicked with me.

I’m hoping that with time this album holds up, but it’s too early and the new car smell is still fresh if you know what I mean.

Yup, that's fair. But Yield is a pretty accessible album and has lingered there for most people. So is Ten. And accessible doesn't mean an album doesn't have things to discover and layers of meaning. It's just not necessarily being obtuse about them. I think Dark Matter strives to establish an immediate connection (it plays like a live album) but I think we'll find (or I'll find) that the emotional resonance remains, and will grow in complexity both within the album and as the album situates itself within the larger catalog.


Almost everyone posting here has a deep and abiding interest in Pearl Jam. And whether we realize it or not, our experience of most of the records are informed by the ones that precede them, and sometimes those that follow. I don't think No Code hits as hard (or stays with you as long) if it's not in some ways building off of what Vitalogy is working through, for instance.

I do think this album has staying power if I were to trust my gut instinct. It could be the stars aligning but I have had an emotional reaction to this record in a way that feels completely natural. Pearl Jam had always been cathartic (just watch the Let’s Play Two documentary, as the cathartic nature of the band and Eddie Vedder in particular aligns with a team and fan base relinquishing a 108 year “curse”), and this album has it more readily available than much of their work this century. I just am reserving my judgment until it becomes clearer whether it’s inherent or by design. The difference may be slight, but I think it’s significant. Ultimately that distinction will determine where this one ends up in the long run.

I do somewhat disagree about Yield. It was accessible in relation the No Code and Binaurl that bookended it on either side for sure. But it’s the gift that keeps on giving. I think it was their most intentional performance of their career, as in I feel that every note mattered in a similar way to Hendrix describing Electric Ladyland. It was - and remains - a lush layered listen. The bridge in No Way being a perfect example. Not a commercially successful song by any means, but it is infectious and gets more satisfying even 25 years later which each repeated listen. It could be the superb capturing of the recording a la Trag’s great lament about Dark Matter lacking, but in my opinion it is the ultimate album experience as an entire piece of work. It’s in rarified air that few records hold. Recovering the Satellites, Achtung Baby, Elephant, Blood on the Tracks, Southern Harmony and Musical Companion level good.

Most of us have made a lifetime commitment to the band. I think it's safe and fair to play it cautious. There is time.

This isn't the album I expected, or even wanted really. But I love it. I'm sad every time it ends.

Ok you have all just been laying down some incredible post!
I struggle with a few things in this bands catalog.
1. Vs is not a enjoyable album for me personally. I have never put my finger on it. Vs has some of my absolute favorite songs. Is it the sequence? I don't think so. I liked fine till Vitalogy. Vitalogy came out just over a year later.
Vs got book ended by two of the most fully realized albums of all time. All that happened in 4 years. We were also getting unreleased b sides that were or are incredible.
2. I didn't get No Code. I should have, but I didn't. There were songs I liked but as a whole I did not get it. Back to that later. Yield came out I was nervous felt suffocated. Was it gonna suck like No Code? What if I no longer liked Pearl Jam. Then I heard it holy shit this is it. This is what I needed. 98 tour the Highlight turned out to be hearing Habbit Smile and off he goes live.
Then I kind of realized that 10- Vitalogy were Rumors and No Code was Tusk.
Binaural left me almost as bewildered as No Code, but I dug it.
Riot Act much like Vs doesn't work for me but I really feel like I could sequence a 10 song album from those sessions and maybe get a really tremendous album.
S/T was is pretty great and the perfect follow up to Riot Act
Backspacer I adore.
Backspacer is to S/t what Dark Matter is to Gigaton.
While I don't care for Gigaton it is a fine artistic statement with some really great moments.
Dark Matter is really a perfect album though. Yes I to wish it was mixed a little bit differently. All in all the mix doesn't ruin it for me. I actually have only one complaint I can't hear the room.
In closing I struggle mainly with the need to compare these albums and stages against one another. So I say I won't. Then I do. I think because it is a unfolding story. You certainly don't get Upper Hand or Setting Sun with out the past. I can only dream what the future of pearl jam will be when Dark Matter is in the past

^great post

We’ve been on this journey with Ed and the band where they got really popular, and they fought against that while trying to stay as good musically and as true to themselves as possible. It transformed our fandom. What’s interesting now is that it feels like they aren’t fighting against the pieces of them that are easily digestible by mass audiences. Those pieces have become tools in their toolbox again, but now it’s a much richer toolbox, and their ability to call on all their past sounds brings to us a new sound altogether.

To your point they and especially Ed and Stone seem more secure in what speaks to them and inspires them. Stone has for years talked about his love of pop. Ed has never hid from it Split Enz etc, the Mark Arm effect I call it kept him from really going all in on some of that like he does on wreckage and wont tell.
Mike's isn't holding back. Jeff is writing big stupid punk riffs along side Pink Floyd soundscapes. All the influences are there. You can pick 20 different influences in the first 3 songs if you try.
It is really great.

5 stars
Waiting For Stevie
Scared Of Fear
Upper Hand
Setting Sun

4 stars
Wreckage
Won’t Tell
React/respond
Dark Matter
Got To Give
Running

3
Something special

This album reminds me of why I love this band more than any other in a long time.

Thankyou Mr Watt.


Please release the b-sides

Something Special should have been called Nothing Special instead.

You perfectly articulated how I'm hearing the album. It's rich with all of their influences in a way that feels entirely natural and it still sounds like Pearl Jam.

To what extent do you think DM has benefited from having Gigaton as its predecessor? Feels like Gigaton won back a lot of credibility from the hardcore because it was a bit more experimental and less poppy and polished than Lightning Bolt and Backspacer. If DM had followed LB it might have felt they a) they had perfected their attempts at a more accessible and mainstream sound but b) the more ambitious and experimental PJ was truly a thing of the past, which might have been disconcerting. I think Gigaton probably served as an important reminder of what they still had in their locker.