Sunday, August 24, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews

MY MORNING JACKET

“EVIL URGES” (ATO)

Part of My Morning Jacket’s allure is that its music has never been easy to describe. It wasn’t until I experienced the group’s live show that it made sense, and even then, it was difficult to convey how the band pieced together disparate elements to concoct its psychedelic brew.

Frontman/songwriter/guitarist Jim Jones further muddies the waters on the group’s eclectic fifth studio album. MMJ includes elements of country, Americana, grunge, hard rock, prog and garage, yet “Evil Urges” shifts into shimmering soul mode on some tracks. Jones climbs through a bizarre falsetto for the very Prince-like funker “Highly Suspicious,” a tune entirely unlike anything the quintet has previously released. The string-laden Philly R&B of “Thank You Too!” approximates a pretty good Hall & Oates B-side and “Look at You” is a successful soul/country mash-up.

    Jones’ distinctive tenor and peculiar yet generally intriguing lyrics still rule here, and even though there are few of the thundering rockers of earlier discs, the band cranks its guitars up on “Aluminum Park,” with the middle section sounding like prime period Crazy Horse.

   The eight-minute closer “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 2” sounds like Hawkwind’s space rock crash-landed to earth and soaked in MMJ’s spiked Southern brew. Jazzy piano riffs and Jones’ multi-tracked vocals converge in a languorous melody which, like the group’s finest music, twists in a variety of indescribable directions. This is what, in a sea of modern-rock sameness, continues to set Jacket apart from the pack. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz