Pearl Jam has released a new single. It’s titled Dark Matter and gives the name to their new album of unreleased tracks, the first since Gigaton in 2020. “It will be heavier than you think,” guitarist Mike McCready said some time ago. It will be released on April 19th.
If the lyrics seem to narrate these confused times using the metaphor of dark matter, namely the mass of the universe not visible and not constituted by cosmic matter, the music is written by the band members Eddie Vedder, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Jeff Ament with Andrew Watt, who is also the producer of the track and the album.
The record was recorded over three weeks at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studios in Malibu in 2023. Introducing it a couple of weeks ago at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, Vedder said, “It’s our best record and it’s not hyperbole“. The idea, he added, was to create music based on sensations like “anxiety, anger, sadness, joy, regret“.
The group has so far announced only two summer dates; more are expected to be announced, perhaps even today. Below are the tracklist and covers of the album and single by Alexandr Gnezdilov, a photographer who uses the light painting technique combining a long or very long exposure with the movement of various light sources to create suggestive effects.
For the cover of the album coming out in April, Gnezdilov used a kaleidoscope of his own construction.
Here’s the tracklist. The deluxe version of the album includes two CDs. The second disc will contain an Immersive Mix.
Scared of Fear
React/Respond
Wreckage
Dark Matter
Won’t Tell
Upper Hand
Waiting for Stevie
Running
Something Special
Got to Give
Setting Sun
