Whenever a band of the caliber of Pearl Jam even just preparing to publish a new work, then opinions and judgments (not always requested) rain down from above as solid as snow, annoying as hail. And when the aforementioned work then finds light, then heaven opens up. “Dark Matter”, spring-loaded by the declarations of Eddie Vedder who (perhaps carrying a bottle of Barolo) had defined this the best album of the band, let’s say it straight away: it is not a masterpiece like “Ten”, “VS” or “Vitalogy” but neither is it a rubbish nor, much less, an obviously valid work given its illustrious predecessors, and the years that have passed since the first climbs. Over thirty, to be precise.
Branded (not always for the better) by the heavy hand of thatAndrew Watts that compresses everything and at the same time transforms it into gold, Pearl Jam’s new studio album still marks – and this is news – the group’s best outing (for this writer) since, at least, the days of “Riot Act”: reviving a formula which especially in the case of the latest “Gigaton” and “Lightning Bolt” had produced very good songs but two albums that were little more than sufficient.
In “Dark Matter” Pearl Jam play first and foremost as a whole remembering more “No Code” and “Yield” than the unattainable debuts, citing themselves in the best episodes (“Scared Of Fear” contains within itself the seed of “Brain Of J”) but in terms of modality and quantity acceptable. Simply doing the servant’s calculations, out of eleven songs divided over 48 minutes of music there are fewer fillers (“Running”) and more compositions that you immediately want to listen to again: “React, Respond”, “Wreckage”, the title track ” Dark Matter”, “Won’t Tell”, the albeit sappy “Something Special” and, honorable mention, the latest epic “Setting Sun”.
A work, the twelfth in the studio by the American group, easy to appreciate if you understand it though the warning inherent: remember or how and how much our idols age, have no duty to live up to our expectations nor to their own discography, aware – as is obvious – of having already produced the best of what they can do. That Pearl Jam also made immense tours – to quote Venditti – what matters most is that, in the end, always come back. Constantly observed as never before in recent years, often by gazes that are more pretentious than attentive and free.
