Pearl Jam’s new album Dark Matter has sent bassist Jeff Ament on a journey. It’s a record where he works through punk-adjacent pounding (Running, Scared of Fear); rhythmically fired-up riff rawk (Dark Matter); joyful Stax-styled bass runs (Got to Give); and bar-chopping country ballads (Something Special).
As deep and exploratory as any Pearl Jam album, Dark Matter also scales back the ambient electronic whirl that marked parts of 2020’s Gigaton in favor of a harder-hitting immediacy. “I think that punch probably comes from the process being so quick,” Ament explains, noting it was made in three weeks between producer Andrew Watt’s Beverly Hills home recording space, and Rick Rubin’s iconic Shangri La studio in nearby Malibu.
