For those who grew up playing Guitar Hero III the name Pearl Jam will mean little more than setlist fodder. Apologies, but those out there who had an Xbox 360, a dream of being a stand-up comedian and later a history teacher, lucked out and found themselves here, talking about Dark Matter. It is both great and unnerving to hear so many steady and solid rock bands of old mull around with general consistencies. With the likes of Judas Priest and Magnum still catering to the right crowds, it is hard not to give them a satisfying nod, an inkling of understanding the pressures they continue to strive under as the streaming landscape means their once arena sell-out satisfaction is bottled up as a midcard slot at a Leeds-based festival. The passage of time is brutal, yet Pearl Jam adapts well.
Hear those conflicting voices wander around your head, calling as they do on opener Scared of Fear. Frank and welcome maturity guide Pearl Jam away from what could have been an expressionless and fear-filled attempt at recapturing their youth. After the tempered and singular rages of React, Respond, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder hopes for calmer seas. He brings an almost country twinge to the upbeat joys of Wreckage. It is hard to hate fundamental change to a band with the years behind them to warrant staying course and rattling out similar material. It is not enough for Pearl Jam nor their audience and a welcome surprise awaits those hardened rock heads. Titlte track Dark Matter holds a genuine distrust of the public and the people we hold close to us – a reliant track which suddenly finds itself hitting out at the insolence and intolerance. Its impatience is its fury and even with the monotone Vedder flicks the crushing guitar work makes up for it.
Clawing for the approval of everyone on Waiting for Stevie wins no favours with the band. Relaxed tones take hold of Dark Matter and for all its furious hard rock, the heartland shock takes hold and feels comfortable, memorable and familiar. Pearl Jam makes it work better than most would – a series of solid turns which offer the clunks and whirrs of country without the usual typecast of liquor and love in the back of a pick-up truck. Something Special is the best of a decent, latter bunch. Dark Matter is keen to allow its listeners to explore their mind, to find themselves on the top of familiar pangs of instrumental clarity and well-meaning works.
Comfortable material from a band who has offered their best work a long while ago. Dark Matter is as the material itself is, weakly stuck together but the possibilities of it – the feeling of creation – are on hand to keep us hooked. Setting Sun is a neat and comfortable end. Not all works have to be a crashing, rallying cry against the world. Sometimes the best way to take note of the world around you is to find a piece like Dark Matter, the honest heartland rock at its core is a nice flicker of maturity from a band brimming with experience. They hone their instrumental styles into pockets of sudden flurries, real rewarding pieces which rise to the occasion. Ultimately it comes down to Vedder coaxing the country tones from his lungs and engaging them as best he can. An engaged experience, a relatively calm and complacent piece which will certainly linger on the mind for just that little bit longer than some other works.
