Pearl Jam – Dark Matter

Mine sounds fine. No static or pops. Not my favorite PJ album tho.

Bought this used at my local record store. First thought: why did someone sell this back? Second thought (as I've been burned before): Is this going to be another trip to "Skip City?" where the needle skips all over the place due to microscopic defects I can't see but the needle sure finds them. Third thought: F*** it, it's $25 and the packaging is cool. I have the CD, which I thought sounded great, but I've grown up in the digital age, despite collecting vinyl as a kid. I also went with a high school buddy to see the "listening party" film at a local AMC theater (he's a super fan of PJ...I can take em or leave em tbh). so I bought it. Sounds sludgy and compressed, but not sure if that was the band's intention? CD just happened to sound a but better. Typical modern day PJ. Some catchy songs, some plodding songs, Eddie dropping the occasional F-bomb to still seem cool.

The problem with this record isn’t the engineering, mixing, mastering, or pressing. The artwork and vinyl variants look awesome. The problem is that it’s not a very good album, imo.

Cannot fathom why they put 'Upper Hand' as B1, creating a 28 1/2 minute side. Should really have been double vinyl, but at least 'Upper Hand' as A6 would've kept the long side under 26.

Yep ok some compression but hardly the train wreak that some are signalling here. Love the ghost coloured vinyl. Housed in a proper poly inner sleeve so clean flat quiet and static free. Quality gatefold and booklet. I’m not a PJ fan by any stretch and probably like this album as it is distinctly un-PJ in its sound. We could do worse folks. I’m enjoying this!!

Listening to my copy for the first time, I stopped the record and streamed the album to check that there wasn’t something wrong with my stereo. Both stereo and pressing were fine. The production of this album very compressed with zero low mids. Not a fault of the pressing but a creative choice of the band. Which is why it sounds as hi-fi as a K-Tel compilation from the 1970s. Regardless of the higher limited sound, it’s still punchy. Hey, at least it won’t skip on a Crosley Cruiser.

Don't find any problems from this. Looks and sounds great. Nothing bad to say. Perhaps the euro price could have been -10€. Recommended release

Reading other reviews, I thought it would sound like dropping the needle on a personal pan pizza, but it’s…fine? It’s not super dynamic or anything but the songs whip and there’s no surface noise on my copy. Some of y’all are wild.

I've had this since it came out and listened to it many times now on several different stereo systems and record players. I also bought the album on CD. It sounds better on CD. (I have not listened to the "Immersive Mix" on BluRay yet.) This pressing has some nice moments of sound separation but overall sounds stringy, sibilant, and crunched/compressed. At times, it gets quite bad, like the climax of "Setting Sun." Trebly and granular and canned, abrasive and not in an intentional cool in-your-face way (on the contrary, this has been the most commercial eager-to-please pearl jam album since backspacer, which I much prefer). What Watt did with Matt Cameron's drums is over-the-top and atrocious, and totally mars the album on whatever format you choose. Exhausts my ears. The packaging is nice; a large lyric book is a rarity, even in these days where every release is a gatefold. I think the splatter wax is ugly and not in alignment with pj's aesthetic. A friend notes it looked like a Def Leppard or Poison special edition, and I sadly have to agree. I would expect a band who wrote "Spin the Black Circle" during the nadir of vinyl's popularity not to release trendy gimmick vinyl like this. Don't think discogs is the place to review the album itself, just the pressing, so I'll keep those thoughts mostly to myself. I do think it is relevant that Watt's production and the mix make it so there really is no great way to hear this album.

Everything about this is absolutely horrible. The audio is garbage and the songs don't even seem like they put in any effort anymore. PJ used to craft such great songs. Ten was a banger of an album, VS was pretty damn good too, even Vitalogy was a good listen. Everything after that has been a snoozefest.