Grunge icons Pearl Jam are getting ready to release their first album in four years, Dark Matter, the follow-up to 2020's experimental Gigatron.
Last month, Eddie Vedder and Co. released its stuttering, swaggering title track as a first single, and today (March 22nd) they've followed that up with a fast, punky and energetic new track "Running."
Blast it above via YouTube.
In a recent interview with Classic Rock, Pearl Jam guitarist McCready described Dark Matter, which was produced by Andrew Watt (Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, Iggy Pop), as "a lot heavier than you'd expect."
"There's the melody and energy of the first couple of records," McCready said, referencing his band's landmarks Ten and Vs. albums. "We worked with Andrew Watt, who's a younger pop producer-type guy, but he's really a rock guy at heart — I think we're his favorite band. When we were in the studio with him this past year, he really kicked our asses, got us focused, and playing, song after song. It took a long time to make Gigaton, but this new one didn't take long. Andrew was like: 'You guys take forever to make records. Let's do this, right now.'"
McCready also prepped fans for a lot more guitar pyrotechnics than in recent years. "For better or worse, you're gonna hear a lot more lead guitar from me, stuff I haven't done in a long time," he noted. "I went crazy, like with Chris Cornell and Temple of the Dog on 'Reach Down,' all those years ago. I got to do it again. Usually, the first or second takes are best. After that, I start thinking about it and it doesn't have the feel. But Andrew caught the lightning in a bottle, as they say."
Dark Matter is due out April 19th via Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records.
