My Morning JacketEvil Urges (ATO Records)
The deal: Two years ago,
Louisville, Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket released their fourth album,
Z, plunging far beneath their Southern rock roots to unearth funk and soul influences and swapping reverb-drenched guitars for maddening electronic beats. Metacritic.com deemed it the second highest-rated album of ’06, but it wasn’t without its problems. For one, not too many people ever heard the thing. By the end of the year, it was official―ATO Records had shot their star band in the foot. Against MMJ’s wishes, the label had embedded
Z with technology that prevented it from being burned or even uploaded onto a computer. Fans weren’t happy and sales weren’t worth writing home about.
Evil Urges, out June 10, is the band’s second chance at a real hit album.
Of the deeply personal songs on
Evil Urges, singer/guitarist Jim James told
Spin magazine last month, “I wrote a lot of the songs when I’d just met someone and was falling in love, but then the relationship disintegrated, and by the time that happened, it was time to make the record. So some songs that started out in a really positive space now seem desperate to me.”
We say: Not desperate, really. Overlook an embarrassing lyric or two― “
You really saw my naked heart,” for instance―and MMJ have succeeded at crafting some stunning love songs. For all of their otherworldly festival grooves and syncopated freak-outs, it can be easy to forget that sweet and tender is really this band’s bread and butter. This new batch of songs seems to come from the same vulnerable place as
Tennessee Fire’s “I Will Be There When You Die” and
It Still Moves’ “I Will Sing You Songs,” milking James’ voice and his broken heart for all it’s worth. Set against a string section, “The Librarian” follows a bookworm with a pencil in her hair, told from the perspective of the guy who watches her through the bookcases and dreams of taking her out for dinner and a good ravishing. The pedal steel cries throughout “Look at You,” and James raves, “
Look at you, such a glowing example of peace and glory/Let me follow you.” Just when you think it couldn’t get any more romantic, there’s “Thank You Too,” a song that begs to be played at weddings everywhere.
That’s not to say that My Morning Jacket have done without their out-and-out rockers. With a great bang of piano keys and a pair of chugging guitars, “Aluminum Park” wallops with a blast of garage rock, and Zombie-esque voices croak through the throbbing beats on both the title track and “Highly Suspicious.” Chock full of tight, sunny grooves and bizarrely sexy Elton John-ish yowls,
Evil Urges is sure to be the album of the summer. At worst, it’s a slow-burner that may take a few listens to grab you. At best, it’s My Morning Jacket’s second chance at a first hit album.
They say: “
Evil Urges is a hodgepodge of different sounds and genres that coalesce nicely into a new My Morning Jacket package. It won’t be the opus to launch them into superstardom, but it continues what has been their slow upward trajectory to the top echelon of American rock.” - MTV
Rip: “Evil Urges,” “Librarian,” “Thank You Too”
Skip: “Highly Suspicious,” “Two Halves”
If You Like This, Try This: My Morning Jacket’s ZWatch: “Evil Urges”