| CD REVIEW My Morning Jacket |
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Band : My Morning Jacket This Alternative Psychedelic Rock band comes to us from Louisville, Kentucky, and was formed in 1998 when singer/ guitarist/ songwriter Jim James (real name James Olliges Jr, he's also known as Yim Yames, under which surname he released the 2001 Tribute To EP, which features 6 songs originally by George Harrison) broke up his former band Month Of Sundays to start a collaboration with Shelbyville based Emo Punk act Winter Death Club bandmembers John McQuade (guitar & backing vocals), bassist Tom Blankenship (later known as “Two-Tone” Tommy) and drummer J. Roberts, using their combined knowledge of Classic Rock, Country, Soul and Psychedelia as a palate to create the band's “...fresh, life-affirming Rock 'n' Roll and aching, haunting balladry...” (quote from the info sheet that came with out download promo copy of this album). MMJ signed a deal with Darla Records, and released their debut album The Tennessee Fire in May 1999. In 2000 the band added keyboardist Danny Cash to its line-up, and the following year released its second album At Dawn. By the time of release drummer J. Roberts (then named J. Glenn) left, and saw himself replaced by Chris Guetig, who himself was supplanted by James' childhood friend Patrick Hallahan in May 2002. That same year MMJ released a split EP with Songs:Ohio, and signed to major label ATO Records with the 2003 album It Still Moves (marking the band's first notation into the US charts at #121) as a first result (followed that same year by the EP Acoustic Citsuoca). In 2004 both McQuade (whom had been using the surname Quade) and Cash both left the band, to be replaced by Carl Broemel and Bo Koster respectively. The band's line-up has remained stable since. In November 2004 the band released two compilation albums of early material (demos, live recordings, covers) with Early Recordings Chapter 1 – The Sandworm Cometh and Early Recordings Chapter 2 – Learning. These albums marked a subtle change in the bands musical direction, James stretching his song-writing capabilities beyond the band's familiar reference points of their earlier work, scattering the band's ragged Rockers and tender ballads with subtly sensual grooves (hey, in case you're wondering...of course I got that info from that same info sheet!). MMJ new style first created the critically acclaimed 2005 album Z (issued through Sony BMG, it made a US chart notation of #67), which garnered the band a lot of positive points in their career. Firstly, the guys were featured (as a band called Ruckus) in the 2005 movie Elizabethtown, playing the original song “Where To Begin” and the Nancy Wilson (of Heart) written “Same In Any Language”. Next, the band appeared as musical guests on The Late Show With David Letterman, performing with members of the Boston Pops. Later that month the band played two shows with the latter at the Boston Symphony Hall. In 2006 the band released their double live CD plus DVD Okonokos, and 2007 saw the release of yet another compilation of the band's material under the title At Dawn/ Tennessee Fire Demos Package. Continuing on their newly taken, and obviously successful, musical direction, the band released 2008's Evil Urges (making a US charting at #9), and followed that up with the 2009 live albums Live From Las Vegas Exclusiely At The Palms and Celebración de la Cuidad Natal (the first released in January, the second a Record Day 2009 – 18/04/2009 – exclusive). For (m)any more details on the band's success and historical facts in that period, please consult the band's page at Wikipedia, from which I partly culled the above story – give credit where credit is due, and all that, you know!). Important to know at this time is, that over the last years both James and the other band members have frequently guested on other artists' albums. For the recordings of the band's latest output, the guys secluded themselves in the gymnasium of one of their home town churches. There James and Tucker Martine (whom the first knew from having performed backing vocals on the 2010 Laura Veirs album July Frame) co-produced the album, which was recorded in a very live vibe, with James' vocals being recorded at the same time as the instruments, and very little overdubs being performed afterward. The idea was, to capture the sound of the band just playing, being in the same place and just feeding off each other. According to James (info sheet, begin quote) “the new album finds a sweet understanding between the questing creative impulses of Evil Urges and the more familiar feel of My Morning Jacket's earlier work. “The album is like a rolling, gentle soundwave,“ he says, “but I don't feel Circuital sounds like our earlier recordings. We're always trying to go in new directions.” (end quote). In other words, those music lovers who're already familiar with MMJ will revel in an album which has both a familiarity and evolution as compared to what they've already heard from the band. Those not knowing the band yet will not find a good description here, because MMJ is a bit hard for me to describe at the moment.(end of this day's writing – see later) (Beginning of a new day) After having given the album its initial listening sessions earlier, I sat down yesterday morning to start this review, and simply got stuck after the history-of-the-band part. Good thing I went out to town yesterday, to do some necessary shopping (allowing me to listen to some other albums to review on the way), because otherwize I would not have listened to anything else but Circuital. In fact, after returning from town around four in the afternoon, I continued to listen to the album for the rest of the day, trying to figure out a way to continue until I put out the lights. Of course, one of the most typical things about MMJ, is James' sweet semi-high vocal signature, which occasionally goes for a fake falsetto, or puts in some vibrato. The way they approach their songs is somewhat varied. In the album opening tracks “Victory Dance” and “Circuital”, the main drive first comes from the atmospheric and drawn-out keyboards along with a sparingly played guitar, but in the case of the first there's a gradual build-up with the guitars (ànd keyboards), as well as vocally, in the second part of the song, before the guys tone down everything again, making an Ambient bridge between the two songs. That same modest guitar from the opening track's beginning, and those wacky keyboards, are back there for the album's title track, but when the songs breaks open it's with an acoustic guitar accompanied by an electrified one (during the vocal parts the electric guitar is all but shut up), and at the appropriate moment keyboards return in the form of a very nice returning piano melody. There's then an electric guitar solo, after which we return to the opening mood of the track, working towards yet another Ambient-like ending on the keyboards. On the ensuing “The Day Is Coming”, there's not even a guitar used, but what a beautiful song, also partly thanks to the great harmonic backing vocals. Next up are the balled “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” (only accompanying instruments are an acoustic guitar and a sparingly used violin-keyboard, with some soft percussion drum towards the end added) and the more lively “Outta My System” (actually has two electric guitars in it, but not used in a “heavy” way, one of the two a nice whining one played in the higher ranges of tonality with quite some reverb as well as some echo on it – kinda like one might hear from a slide guitar, but different), two songs originally written to be performed in the upcoming Muppets movie (the songs were left unused after the executive in charge was fired from the project). Now during my multiple listening sessions yesterday I continued to be amazed at how different these first 5 songs on alum were from the next 5...and I found the answer to that only this morning. You see, according to some info I'd downloaded but looked over so far, the first songs on the album were actually recorded during the band's shows at New York's Terminal 5 in Oct. 2010! So, what different? For one thing, there's a much “bigger” sound on the second part of the album! I mean, either the keyboardist is a wizard, or the band used an additional horn section on “Holding On To Black Metal” (which also sees the participation of some child choir) and “First Light” (horn section primarily a saxophone, I'd say) on top of far more Rock-geared songs. The ensuing “You Wanna Freak Out” even finds the band freaking out somewhat after a calmer opening with again acoustic guitar being accompanied by that “slide” guitar. The album closing “Slow Slow Tune” and “Moving Away”on the other hand, apply a very different mood, one which is really far calmer. In the case of the first you get a very nice ballad, a tune James apparently wrote as a lullaby for his son. In the first half an almost acoustic electric guitar makes the music, but soon it's accompanied by the almost Ambient slide guitar (at the least you can say it's ethereal), which takes on a bit more volume in between the song's verses, but hopefully not “hard” enough to wake the kid (if indeed this is meant to be a lullaby). For “Moving Away” the ballad approach is approached by opening with just piano, bass, and drum, but soon the ethereal slide guitar comes in as well, in the background mainly. Combined with James' vocal stylings it gives the song a nice lamenting mood. Darn, turns out I gave this album's songs far more attention that I'd originally wanted to, or even had the time for...but I am not só completely taken in with this material that I'm actually contemplating adding Circuital to my year-lists. Vinyl addicts will be pleased to find the album was also released in a double 12-inch, 45 rpm format...which is the format I'm gonna try to get. As a promotional stunt, the band gave away songs on the album, one download per week for six weeks prior to April 12, 2011. Oh, and what with the album already out for a while in the US, here's some extra info about its reception. You see, the media were enthoused, giving the album high ratings all around, and the US fans were eager enough for the new album as to buy enough copies (55,000 copies in the first week) to see it goin' up to #5 on the Billboard 200 charts...topping all former album's ratings by the band. The song “Holding On To Black Metal” was the first single culled from the album, but the songs posted at (www.) myspace.com/mymorningjacket are the aforementioned first 5 on the album...so in order to know what moved 55,000 Americans into buying the album, you'll have to look up the album's page at one of the trusted online sales websites. They will at least provide you with 30-second samples of the missing songs. I mean, dó check it out, because this is truly beautiful music, and it's definitely worth the effort! 95/100 Tony. |
