Pearl Jam Drop Ripping Title Track For ‘Dark Matter’ Album

Pearl Jam have unveiled the first details of their upcoming 12th album, Dark Matter, sharing the absolutely insane title track today.

The album itself will arrive on April 19, with pre-orders available here. It comes as the follow-up to Pearl Jam’s 2020 effort Gigaton, which was declared by TheMusic.com.au writer Jess Dale as their most divisive album since 1996’s No Code.

“I’m getting chills,” frontman Eddie Vedder said in a press release, “because I have good memories. We’re still looking for ways to communicate. We’re at this time in our lives when you could do it or you could not do it, but we still care about putting something out there that is meaningful and we hopefully think is our best work. No hyperbole, I think this is our best work.”

The excitement was shared by bassist Jeff Ament, who added: “What Ed said about getting us in a room at this point, we felt like we were about to make a really important record. A lot of that had to do with the atmosphere Andrew [Watt, producer] set up. He has encyclopedic knowledge of our history, not only as a band and how we wrote songs, but as players.

“He could pinpoint things we did on old songs to the point where I was like, ‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ His excitement was contagious. He’s a force. I just want to say thanks for keeping us on track. I couldn’t be prouder of us as a band. I feel so grateful for the fans, but mostly for my brothers and these people I’ve made music with.”

Have a listen to the title track to Dark Matter below:

Speaking about Dark Matter in a recent interview, guitarist Mike McCready hinted that the album is “a lot heavier than you’d expect”, explaining: “There’s the melody and energy of the first couple of records. Andrew pushed us to play as hard and melodic and thoughtful as we’ve done in a long time. I feel like Matt Cameron’s drumming has elements of what he did in Soundgarden.”

Meanwhile, Pearl Jam are expected to announce an Australian tour any day now. Rumours of such started floating around last month when the band teased that fans Down Under should get themselves “koala-fied for our ticket presales”. A second tease followed last Sunday (February 11), so we’re expecting the official news to land sometime this week.