Still Fumbling Towards Ecstasy With Sarah McLachlan 30 Years On

Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Toward Ecstasy continues to speak, 30 years on, to those possessed with and still Fumbling after ecstasy. 

Pearl Jam Dark Matter Album Reflections

 

Pearl Jam Dark Matter 

Dark Matter has been out long enough now that official bootlegs of Pearl Jam's 2024 tour are available at pearljam.com/tenclub. Live versions of songs off the album can be heard, dissected, and scrutinized by Pearl Jam's legions of fans, myself being one of them. Some of the songs take on new life live, like "Setting Sun," a song which I didn't really get into upon hearing it on the album. Now it's one of my favorite new PJ songs. Other songs like "Won't Tell" are just as compelling live as they are on the album. Anyway, what is there left to say about the band's most recent album that hasn't already been said? Not much. Still, a 33 year Pearl Jam fan's opinion might be interesting, especially since upon a first listen to the band's 12th studio album, I despised how it sounded. It turns out I wasn't evolved enough yet to understand it. 

Pearl Jam "Dark Matter" (Single)

 

It's a bit cliched to reminisce, out loud at least, about when and where you first heard a certain song and the effect said song had on you. I'm going to do it anyway. I have three songs that I heard, coincidentally all while driving to or from work or school in the early 1990s, that I can distinctly remember the place, time, and circumstances surrounding the first time I heard them. One was "Smells Like Teen Spirit." One was "Cherub Rock," and one was "Even Flow." Each one of these songs stimulated my auditory nerves like I can only imagine that first hit of your drug of choice did. I wouldn't know the ins and outs of how a first hit of heroin or coke might feel. I'm straight edge as far as that stuff is concerned. Nevertheless, I know what it feels like to feel high. My highs are linked explicitly to good music, good books, and good art. All of which have swirled around the bands who produced the music mentioned above. Only one of those bands has continued to give me repeat experiences of the type of "you remember where you were when you heard it first" moments. It's quite an accomplishment for a band, 32 years on from that "Even Flow" moment to recreate, for this listener at least, a similar experience. That's what happened with Pearl Jam's latest single, "Dark Matter." This time though, the urgency and the call to action in the music is tempered with the power of authority that only longevity, and a track record for evoking a change in the consciousness of their listeners, can provide. 

 The Foo Fighters share just where they are, physically, mentally, and spiritually on But Here We Are, and take us along with them on a journey of healing. 

I never say to anyone who is facing a tragedy or significant loss “I know how you feel.” I don’t. Even though I’ve faced tragedy and experienced significant loss. Like Dave Grohl I lost a brother. Taylor Hawkins was Grohl’s brother. I empathize with Grohl. I feel for him, and all of those who were close to Taylor, but I don’t “know” how he feels. Grief and loss are experienced by everyone just a little bit differently. When Grohl sings, “Are you feeling what I’m feeling?” and “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” in “Rescued,” the lead single from The Foo Fighters’ lean new album But Here We Are, I can honestly answer “yes.” But I would never assume to “know” what he’s thinking or feeling. After a listen through the album, it’s pretty easy to understand what Grohl is thinking and feeling in the wake of Taylor Hawkins’ death though. The least of which is that Taylor, like any lost loved one, is irreplaceable. 

Smashing Pumpkins Usher In All Hallows Eve With New Single "Wyttch"

 

It would seem that Smashing Pumpkins, who've been around for more than two decades, would have already endorsed the holiday where pumpkins reign. While the band played a Halloween show with KISS back in 1998 where they performed dressed up as The Beatles, Billy Corgan hasn't directly addressed the holiday or its spooky overtones directly, and rightly so. To do so would walk too dangerously along the line of kitsch that would be hard to recover from. For acts like Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper, for which every day is Halloween, a veneration of all things connected to All Hallows Eve is a part of the production, and product. While much of the Smashing Pumpkins' album art and concert imagery, not to mention guitar rock heaviness, might evoke a sense of "death rock" or "grunge in furs" that is most at home during the spooky season, Corgan and his band's music is more than just a trip down a misty goth rock lane. The latest album from Smashing Pumpkins, CYR, morphs their sound from a heavy "death rock" sound into an early 80s goth rock one that's loaded with synths, throbbing bass, and nary a guitar solo in earshot. The sonic landscape of CYR is more safely conducive to a dabbling in references to Halloween than their previous efforts. 

Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood Get Biblical and Artistic on With Animals

Wayward women, mistakes, something "lonelier than death," feasts, and the obligatory famines work their way through the latest album from Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood, and thematically gel in grand tradition with the music.

Alice In Chains Get Atmospheric With The Grunge on Rainier Fog

Alice In Chains' sixth album, Rainier Fog, delivers more of their inspired signature metallic yet melodic grunge. This time with a twist, even if the riffs feel slightly stale.