NEW ALBUMS

Dark Matter MONKEYWRENCH/REPUBLIC

DANNYCLINCH

8/10

Commendably restless 12th from Seattle survivors. By Andrew Mueller

WHERE Pearl Jam albums are concerned, there is very often aclue in the name. Pearl Jam’s second, 1993’s Vs, was the sound of asuddenly immensely successful yet bewildered and furious young band demanding of the world what it thought it was staring at. 1996’s No Code was a rejection and subversion of most of what might be expected of aheavy rock group, afitful meander through previously unexplored musical realms. 1998’s Yield could be heard as aresignation to the idea that Pearl Jam were actually, on mature reflection, apretty good heavy rock group, and there might not be anything much wrong with that. 2020’s Gigaton was more or less self-explanatory.

The title of Dark Matter is apartial guide to its contents. This is afretful and ferocious record, lyrically much preoccupied with things having ended or appearing about to end, but musically much more blaze of glory than any kind of funeral pyre. The title track, by way of representative sample, finds Eddie Vedder assuming the form of an older but angrier version of the precocious young demon-tamer who announced himself on Ten, 33 years ago. He steams straight in with “steal the light from your eyes/Drain the blood from our hearts”, before urging the band through athunderous, Sabbath-ish protest song against nothing in particular but everything in general, during which Vedder manages to find some solicitous words for the Fourth Estate (“Once heard it said/And it stuck in my head/Arrested the press/No-one knows what happened next”).