Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter In TrueHD Dolby Atmos

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This month the Sun, Moon, and Earth aligned, record store day fell on 4/20, and Pearl Jam released a new album. One of the aforementioned items made my eyes well up, delivering an emotion experience about which I’ll be talking for a long time. Eclipses are neat and 4/20 meant more to me back in the day, but the new Pearl Jam record, Dark Matter, is something special.

In 1991 I went from an eighth grader listening to misogynistic Motley Crue to a high school freshman awakened by Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten and the band’s activism. Pearl Jam changed my life, and I can’t imagine it going any other way. I would happily take PJ’s music on a mono AM radio, like the one on which my dad listened to WCCO 830 in the bathroom every morning, rather than any other band’s music on the world’s highest resolution stereo. It’s about the music, the message, and the emotion. Sure, we hear music with our ears, but some music we feel in our hearts.

Like the rare solar eclipse, once in a great while we experience the perfect sonic storm, in the best way imaginable. A sublime storm that mixes our favorite music with incredible sound quality, to be played on an audio system built for just this purpose. On April 19th Pearl Jam released Dark Matter on Blu-ray Disc, among many other formats and variants, containing a high resolution TrueHD Dolby Atmos immersive mix. This is an absolute game changer.

The main ingredient in this perfect storm is of course an album that I love. Every song on Dark Matter is impactful musically and lyrically. Track one, "Scared of Fear," gets my heart going and my mind imagining what it’s going to sound like live. The opening guitar riff is an instant classic, and one that I can see the band kicking their chairs aside, to launch into after opening a show seated, playing some slower tempo tracks.

The title track, "Dark Matter," is as close to a perfect Pearl Jam song as I’ve ever heard. Matt Cameron pounding the drum kit in fine form, Stone Gossard playing sick and filthy riffs, Mike McCready ripping a solo that’ll melt your face, Jeff Ament providing the groove to which Eddie Vedder lays down some potent truth-to-power lyrics. I dare anyone to listen to this song and not feel the energy. It’s going to be a banger live in concert.

Speaking of guitar, Mike McCready’s solos on this album are plentiful and legendary. For example, the track "Upper Hand" has two guitar leads. The first is David Gilmour-esque, his influence on McCready and Pearl Jam in general can’t be overstated. McCready actually wrote out the first lead before recording the song. With roughly a minute left in the song McCready flows into one of his memorable, off the cuff, leads for which he’s come to be known. It’s believable and unbelievable that most of his guitar leads are unwritten, played in one take, and based on the feeling he gets from the music, other guys in the band, and raw emotion. On this entire Dark Matter album, McCready solidifies his status even more, as another Pacific Northwest guitar god.

The biggest surprise for me on Dark Matter is the drumming of Matt Cameron. Of course he was the hard hitting drummer for Soundgarden and has backed Pearl Jam for seemingly ever, but I’ve never heard him play like this. He plays like a madman influenced by a combination of John Bonham and Buddy Rich! The first time I heard this album, it was Cameron’s drumming that amazed me and got me really excited, more than anything. Perhaps he was a touch polite on some of the previous albums, but on Dark Matter he’s a launch pad, enabling this band to reach new heights.

Lyrically, Dark Matter is full of what many of us love about Pearl Jam. Thoughtful lyrics with meaning, perceptive turns of phrase, and above all lyrics with endless emotion. Eddie Vedder puts emotion into his lyrics, that pulls emotion out of us listeners upon playback. No song captures this more than "Something Special." If you don’t feel something listening to this song, or even reading this first verse, chances are you aren’t a parent. As a parent, especially of a daughter, I connect with this song more than any other. (Tidal link)

If you could see what I see now

You gotta know I'm looking up, oh, so proud

The one I used to hold is, oh, so special

Mmm, and every setback now but a chance to grow

If further proof that you're phenomenal

You better believe it that you are something special

Whoa, ooh, whoa

Afraid to fail, oh, same as afraid to try

These are the days to accept all the invites

'Cause you're so cool and, baby, on the level

Let’s Talk About Sound and Immersion

The other ingredient in this perfect storm of greatness, is the team behind the scenes. Like all albums, there are countless people involved in getting an album out the door. A great Dolby Atmos mix requires engineers who understand the band and its music, have adequate time to create something special, and understand the technology involved in taking this music to another level. On Dark Matter, and all Pearl Jam immersive releases, these engineers are Josh Evans and Nick Rives. These guys are the best in the business at using the right, and right amount of, technology to serve the music and deliver an immersive experience unavailable from any other format.

What Josh Evans and Nick Rives have created with the Dolby Atmos version of Dark Matter is nothing short of a masterpiece. This mix will be used as the benchmark by which other releases are measureed /  judged, although judging art is a fool’s errand. Speaking of judging, these guys absolutely deserve a Grammy nomination for Best Immersive Audio Album. I’ll be watching the announcements come November. They went for it, took chances, and created an unsurpassed experience that brought me closer to Pearl Jam’s music than ever before.

There’s only one “first time” and the first time I listened to Dark Matter in Dolby Atmos, my eyes welled up with tears. It was this perfect storm hitting home. As previously mentioned, the music was fantastic, and this mix was every bit its equal. I still have goosebumps while I type this, thinking about the experience.

Right from the opening of the opening track, it was evident that Dark Matter, the album, was special. The opening music emanates from behind the listener, building toward the front, then BAM! "Scared of Fear" kicks into gear with a front and center guitar riff, followed by guitars that fill in from the sides. Bass and drums are in lock-step together in the front, to maintain a solidly cohesive sonic image. On the chorus, backing vocals can be heard from the sides, supporting the main vocal, in a way that lifts up the entire performance. It’s as if this support from the side is elevating, and it serves the track amazingly well.

The Atmos mix on the title track, "Dark Matter," is so extraordinary, that once it’s heard, there’s no going back to the stereo version. Seriously, hearing "Dark Matter" in Atmos, with Matt Cameron banging away up front, supporting guitars loading the soundstage in front and on the side, other sounds ducking in and out appropriately from other speakers, is like no other Pearl Jam experience I’ve had while listening at home since 1991.

But wait there’s more, at about 2:45 into "Dark Matter," when Mike McCready rips into his lead guitar solo, Josh Evans and Nick Rives brilliantly elevate the soundstage through heavy use of the front two height channels, meanwhile the rest of the band continues to sling riffs around like Barry Sanders scores touchdowns (incredibly talented, but acting like he’s been there before). The "Dark Matter" title track is now THE track I will play for people who visit my listening room, and want to experience music in a way they never thought possible. It’s the perfect Pearl Jam song, and the perfect immersive Atmos mix.

Flipping the script a bit, Josh Evans and Nick Rives preset the track "Something Special" and all its emotional pull, in a way that’s incredibly organic. From my listening chair, I feel like I’m sitting in Shangri-La studio in Malibu, CA with Mike, Stone, Jeff, Matt and Eddie around circle in the same room with me. Eddie singing up front with Matt and Jeff keeping the rhythm, with Stone and Jeff sitting to my right and left sides around the circle, playing guitars and adding some backing vocals when appropriate. This sonic immersion elevates an already emotional song into an ethereal experience, where theater of the mind transports the listener into another time and place. No visual queues necessary, or even allowed. The Dolby Atmos mix of Something Special is something special.

Dark Matter and Immersive Wrap Up

This is a perfect storm that’s as rare as a solar eclipse. Anyone with a pulse can see why I was in tears. It’s my favorite band. It’s my favorite music. It’s my favorite way to listen to music. It’s high resolution TrueHD Dolby Atmos. It’s absolute perfection.

The immersive version of Dark Matter is for everyone, even if they have’t realized it yet. A sonic experience this distinctive can’t hide behind the already acclaimed stereo version. It also shouldn’t leap ahead of it because this isn’t competition. The Atmos version of Dark Matter is yet another way to experience music, get closer to the emotional magnetism and electric energy put out by Pearl Jam.

In addition, this Atmos mix solidifies the album’s place as a must-have for future Pearl Jam fans and immersive music lovers. When my twelve year old daughter and her friends come up to my listening room to hear Pearl Jam, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, or Billie Eilish, which version do you think they ask for, stereo or Atmos? It’s all about Atmos for them, all day long, and they even request it by name. As Neil Young said, he’s “making all [his] old albums in Dolby Atmos / Apple Spatial so the next generation can hear them.” When the next generations listen to Dark Matter in Atmos, they’ll be affected like the first time some people heard Dark Side of the Moon, or like the first time I listened to Ten in 1991. It’s an unforgettable experience.

Dark Matter, produced by Andrew Watt, is an instant classic in and of itself. Whether on AM radio, satellite radio, a vinyl record, streamed high resolution, or TrueHD Dolby Atmos, the music remains powerful, emotional, and energizing. The Atmos mix by Josh Evans and Nick Rives released on Blu-ray Disc in TrueHD Dolby Atmos is unsurpassed and brings this music to another level entirely. This perfect storm brought tears to my eyes, the very first time I listened to the album. I can’t say that’s ever happened before, as it usually takes a strong historical and emotional connection for me to get emotional when listening.

It’s time to crank this album again, memorize more lyrics, and get ready to see the band live this summer. Hearing Dark Matter live is going to be legendary.

Pearl Jam

Dark Matter

Deluxe CD & Blu-ray

Buy the album HERE

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