In the streaming era, an album release must be an event to garner attention beyond the music press. While the latest long plays by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé were to some degree calculated to court mainstream media, Pearl Jam’s latest, Dark Matter, is an event release by default. The band’s 12th studio album is an organic effort helmed by a wunderkind superfan producer, yielding 11 new songs to mix into the sprawling set lists of the band's 26-city, 40-date Dark Matter World Tour.
With less commuting comes more time to rest and less clutter in Eddie Vedder’s mind as he surveys the preconcert scenes and creates set lists tailored for the audiences. It’s a given that “Wreckage,” the first single from Dark Matter, will be included in most shows, and likely that several standout tracks will be frequent inclusions.
Opening track, “Scared of Fear,” is one of the strongest cuts on an album conceived and produced mostly as a group effort. A burst of buoyant guitar chordage, reminiscent of ’70s cult power poppers Big Star, is followed by lyrics that feel very Vedder: “Oh, did I say something wrong?/ Oh, did I walk out of step?/ To you, do I still belong?/ Do I have to be scared?”
In an era where creatives are careful to avoid drawing troll fire, it’s not surprising to consider Pearl Jam’s long-held authenticity aspirations at odds with contemporary currents of conformity. “Scared of Fear” can be interpreted as weighing the contrast between nostalgic imagery of carefree music scenes past against the chaos and confusion that needs to be processed in the present.
Producer Andrew Watt treads a most unprocessed path through his own creative process. Unlike 2020’s Gigaton, where most material was brought to the band by its members as individual songwriters, Watt encouraged the musicians to assemble before fertilizing their common ground at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La recording studio in Malibu.
The studio was famously built by The Band in the mid-’70s, and Watt set the stage for casual collaboration with a wizardlike work ethic, a comprehensive understanding of Pearl Jam’s music and a collection of amplifiers and instruments to explore. Watt, born less than 10 months before the release of Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, made magic on Vedder’s 2022 solo album, Earthling.
Watt was, as Vedder has described, a wave he wanted his bandmates to catch. Driving second track “React, Respond” rocks with pounding angular hooks as Vedder dispenses advice for the lost-in-a-crowd contingent. Drummer Matt Cameron makes his presence known on title track as Vedder decries demagogues against a backdrop of stomping riffage.
Lighter moments come with the acoustics of “Wreckage” and sentimental “Won’t Tell.” Dark Matter closes on final track “Setting Sun,” which may have drawn its title from the lyrics to “Scared of Fear.” It’s the most reassuring and optimistic cut on the album, the salve that, in the end, fans look forward to from one of rock’s most enduring bands.
MGM Grand, 7 p.m. May 16 and 18, starting at $188 plus tax and fee. ticketmaster.com
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