3 stars.

Nice, melodic tune.

I enjoy listening to the band play this song for some reason

Theyre all in on it. The cheekiness.

Theres a swagger to it.

One of my favorite parts of this song is the break when the drops drop out and that 12 string comes in from a distance to keep the shuffle going.

When we first got clips of this, I remember Jeff's loud bass getting a bit of derision around here.

In fact, it's a highlight of this one for me, along with the dirty sounding guitars.

100%

The YouTube visualizer is available in the US now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtoNn6Q7Z4

I love this song so much!

Gorgeous song. Fun as hell. Perfect placement after running.

I dont even find the lyrics cheesy. If love is cheesy, then im here for it.

I'm developing a real emotional connection to this song, and I want to write Something Personal about it but I don't know if doing that here would be bad for me

I like this song.

Go ahead Harm, we gotcha'.

Pretty sure I'm repeating myself, but SS has the vocal melody I was most intrigued about from the Troubadour doors, affirmed later on the sport clip.
Sappy lyrics have no business being this good. The bass sounds great.
I put this one at 4 stars.

I'm not judgy, but can't get completely behind "standouts" like WFS and GTG, those two sound way too derivative and self-referential to my ears.
They're really good, but known territory.

love those songs but agree that you've got to be OK with the comfort of the familiar to truly be into them (I'd argue that this was always a part of Pearl Jam to an extent but it has got more potent as they've aged and leaned much more heavily on ol' reliable classic rock influences)

Absolutely.
I do believe they did hit homers with SOF, Won't Tell, and Upper Hand.

Won't Tell is my favourite, it's wonderful; yes I hear Keane, but that first Keane album is pretty good imo

i really like this one. The band is doing all sorts of interesting things and i love ed´s vocal melody too.

OK so...

in the run up to Dark Matter, when we first saw the track list and started hearing stories and background on the songs, I was sure that it was going to be "Waiting For Stevie" -- about a woman (according to Ed) at a concert, who has always been able to escape her pain through music -- that captured me emotionally, hook line and sinker, as someone who has been with this band all of my music-listening life (I was 9 in 1991), and grown to realise I was a woman; but I was wrong

turns out that WFS doesn't go into all that potential depth, it's a bit vaguer, which is fine

since we heard the metal door and official clips of "Something Special", I knew this would be a song I could get behind and on the favourable end of the "schmaltzy songs about Ed's family" spectrum, but I didn't expect a song about *Ed's own daughters* to be the one that hit me in that deep way; I just expected it to be cute, in a good way

that is until yesterday, when I started listening and singing along, and I began crying; I knew immediately why

over the last 10 years I've had a bit of a rocky time with my family, and my parents, accepting me fully as a trans woman, a sister, and a daughter; without going too far into that and making myself completely vulnerable, I don’t expect ever to hear my parents call me their daughter without some hesitation; I've accepted that, come to terms, what have you, and learned to take the good of our relationship while we're all still around; but, suddenly listening to this song from a doting father speaking wisdom / prayer / prophecy of protection almost, over his daughter, it suddenly moved me to tears knowing that I had never experienced that in my past, but that right here, in this moment, I was experiencing a version of that right now, because Ed has always been there and his lyrics were crucial to my development, and here he was, letting me "fly the nest", and saying "before you go, here is a little emotional closure that you maybe didn't even know you needed"

one thing I've been doing for years is referring to Pearl Jam as "my Grunge dads" as a joke; they have no idea who I am, but they've been speaking to me, shaping my morality, my politics, my talents, my tastes, and my choices during some of the best and worst times of my life, *all* of my life

and in that moment, the realisation that Ed, the same force that once scrawled "PRO-CHOICE" on his arm when I was a wide-eyed kid with no idea that some choices would even be possible for me, was still here, and telling me "out of everyone, you're not just anyone; you're the one and only you... we've done all we can do"

and after I was done crying, there was a contentment that washed over me about that

nice read really.

Yeah, PJ always had that magic and effect on me too, from being a kid and also watch Ed writing pro choice on his arm like you said, or kinda getting the lyrics to Habit too and dealing what that myself, even Hail Hail and being in a very weird moment of a relationship, or listening to DOTC and reflecting on the pandemic.

They really get to you and most of those times, its unexpected how and which song will do that.

good stuff Ms H

Damn!