Pearl Jam's 12th studio album: 'Like riding a fast powerful horse'

The first recordings of Pearl Jam's 12th studio album go way back. "Some of the songs were recorded two summers ago," recalled front man Eddie Vedder, 59, in London on the occasion of the release of "Dark Matter."

The most important surviving grunge group then hired producer Andrew Watt to help complete the album, the first since "Gigaton" came out four years ago. Watt, 33, has worked with Elton John, Miley Cyrus and Post Malone. Most recently he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on their celebrated album "Hackney Diamonds."

The Pearl Jam lead singer knows Watt very well, for it was he who produced Vedder's solo album "Earthling" and also played on tour in his band Earthlings. "Andrew works different and it feels a little intense, so I thought it would be good, you know, it'd be like riding a fast powerful horse," Vedder said.

After a few jam sessions, his band mates were on board. And Watt did everything right from the very start, Vedder said: "From the first thing we recorded he made something sound as good as ever if not better, and felt as good if not better."

And in fact, "Dark Matter" begins quickly and powerfully with the grandiosely titled "Scared Of Fear." The crashing uptempo rocker is followed by the furious "React, Respond." It's a musical statement: The members of Pearl Jam are now all around 60, but they haven't lost their bite.

On their latest record, the musicians from Seattle are rocking as hard as ever. But they refrained from experiments such as those heard on the previous album "Gigaton." In an interview with the music magazine Revolver, guitarist Mike McReady described the recording process with Watt: "When we were in the studio with him this past year, he really kicked our asses, got us focused... Andrew pushed us to play as hard, melodic and thoughtfully as we've done in a long time."

However, the musicians don't just rock hard. Pearl Jam dial it down a notch on the rather melancholic "Wreckage" with a strong taste of Americana. The basic idea came from Watt, Vedder said. "Andrew had a little riff," he said. So the two of them worked on it, brought in a second part, refined the patterns, flip-flopped some lines.

"Within a half hour we had had the song and then overnight I think I was able to fill in the lyrics. It was a good sign that within the first half hour of being in a new place, we had a new song. It meant that the songwriting gods were aware that we were there and we were about to take a journey," Vedder said.

This journey takes Pearl Jam across varied musical terrain, via quieter, slower numbers such as "Upper Hand" and "Waiting For Stevie" - a song about a recording session to bring in Stevie Wonder for harmonica backup - which exude a touch of 90s feeling.

Then comes another rousing hard rock cracker titled "Running" and later the folky, minimalist "Setting Sun." However, the title track, of all songs, doesn't really take off. But many other tracks on "Dark Matter" are perfect for their upcoming world tour which starts May 4 in Vancouver and winds up in Sydney on November 23.