My Amazon Reviews: My Morning Jacket "The Waterfall"

Chasing Waterfalls.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Cleaning their sound up a bit while still maintaining their status as one of our best jam bands, "The Waterfall" finds My Morning Jacket relaxing into a great groove. There are plenty of Jim James' soaring falsetto and guitar hero chops, like on "Spring (Among The Living)." (I've seen MMJ three times now and can attest that he's a monster live.) From the bubbly synth that opens "Believe (Nobody Knows)" to the extended play out of "Only Memories Remain," this is the My Morning Jacket album that takes the experiments aside and concentrates on the band's strengths, much like "Circuital" did. And since they decided to stretch out of their comfort zone and record in the sunny spaces of California instead of the hallowed grain silo, it seems like a little California sunshine and polish made its mark on the boys.

They ponder nature ("In Its Infancy"), flirt with folk rock ("Tropics") and even commit to a relatively straightforward break up song ("Get The Point"). There is still a wall of sound aspect to the band, yet this time their seems to be a buffing away of some of the rougher edges. But it's always been the cascades of sound that has been the main attraction of My Morning Jacket. Their combination of folk, psychedelia, and instrumental prowess is one of many reasons that MMJ are one of the most interesting American bands currently making music. It's also soulful; the inspiring "Thin Line" and "Only Memories Remain" are cases in point. The band still keeps to their path of eclecticism and we're all the richer for it.

     

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My Amazon Reviews: My Morning Jacket "Circuital"

Completing The Circuit
4 Out Of 5 Stars

My Morning Jacket have such an ingrained sound that, no matter how many left turns they've taken since "Z," you can still pull their identity out of the ether their albums have become. On "Circuital," they make something of a return to the atmospheric space rock that had gone missing on the almost funky "Evil Urges," while still carrying the chromosomes of that album into this year's warp drives. Like a country-fried version of The Flaming Lips, Jim James and Company just can't stop evolving or lunging into the glorious fogs.

When your album starts with a vocalized faux-horn entrance into a "Victory Dance" and then into the epic title track where James hush/wails that he's "right back in the same place that we started out," and those two pieces are already almost a third of your album, you know you're in for an unconventional ride. Everything here is trippy but assured, from the beauty of the romantic waltz "Moving Away" to the goofy "Holding On To Black Metal;" the band never sounds tentative or as if they're searching for something. Or even if they're cracking musical jokes, as they do on "Outta My System," it's more like an ode to growing up than what most bands would use for filler.

My Morning Jacket may have become America's most fearless band. "Circuital" pulls influences together yet never seems to go down the same road twice, be it Pink Floyd mystical or The Who-like guitar intensity. (Having seen him play twice, I can assure you, the one thing I really wish for is the album where James lets that Townsend-sized energy appear on an album.) They now have discovered how to manage their many musical fusions while remaining their own band. While not the startling revelation that "Z" was, "Circuital" may well be MMJ's best to date, and one of 2011's best albums.