Dan reviews the new My Morning Jacket CD

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (2008)

It's safe to say - My Morning Jacket is NOT the same band they were when they busted out on the scene one decade ago, with their signature brand of tripped out Southern country psychedelia.
Not only have they traded in their beards and long hair for clean cut shags and trimmed goatees... their sound has evolved into something almost as polished as well.
Two words (and they are evil words, but hear me out): Pop. Country.
I know - that's enough to make any serious music fan run away screaming and plugging their ears, wondering why a band as cool as My Morning Jacket went the Rascal Flats route.
I assure you, this is not the case.
This record is an eclectic and brave step into brand new territory. Brave in the sense that they aren't a single bit afraid to play around with pop and country conventions.
Mainstream...but in a good way. Radio friendly...but GOOD-radio-friendly.
It's one of those albums that's just so simple - it's genius. You can't NOT like it.
Like Radiohead's OK Computer. Spoon's Gimme Fiction. Lou Reed's Transformer.
Just flat out good songs that music snobs and mainstreamers can nod in agreement on.
The record opens up with the title track - Evil Urges - a big shocking explosion of reggae-rock fusion with a spaced out guitar solo that is reminiscent of the breakdown in the Who's Teenage Wasteland. To top it off - it's all sewn together with soft Lenny Kravitz vocals, circa Believe from Are You Gonna Go My Way.
It's such a brilliant mish-mash of sounds - you've just got to listen to it a few times before it really sinks in, but sink in, it will.
As a cardinal rule, for an album to have a hard hitting punch factor (which hopefully most artists go for) - two things are required.
An attention getting track one (check!)...and a POWERFUL track two.
Unfortunately, the album doesn't deliver on the ladder. Touch Me I'm Going to Scream part 1 has this...dorky vibe to it. And not in a great way.
Picture a Barenaked Ladies and Snow Patrol love child. While both parents are good looking...an attractive baby, they do not make.
That's kinda how track 2 plays out. As the song drags on, you can feel your attention dragging right along with it.
Luckily - all is not lost and they immediately redeem themselves with Highly Suspicious - another schizo, genre hopping track that ventures into Prince-land, it might even be a tip of the hat to Beck in his Midnight Vultures-era with its crazy beats that are a strip bar's dream come true and falsetto vocals that would make The Purple One himself drool with envy.
Picture disco, fused with a wacked out stoner jam session.
It's a show stopper...a "What the Hell is THIS?!? moment" if ever there was one, something to keep us all on our toes.
Of course - the album is checkered with insane musings and lonely slide guitars - but it's also more upbeat than their previous work. The born-to-be-a-single I'm Amazed - totally rocks, but in a Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" kinda way...complete with crazy-enhanced E.L.O. background vocals and nitty gritty guitar solos that DON'T come off as annoying or predictable.
Thank You Too - is light and beachy...a little Tom Petty...but also leans towards the same fluffiness they flirted with on track two... it sticks out a little bit like a sore thumb that was hit by a Sledge Hammer (and no, I'm not talking about the Peter Gabriel kind), and I can't help but think if this were slowed down a bit, it might make for a nice Natalie Merchant song. My Morning Jacket though...nah. Coulda made a cute b-side.
Sec Walkin' - Beautifully 80's, it could have been the theme song to Family Ties or Growing Pains or maybe even Cheers...it's that special kind of "touching" saved for family sitcoms of the Reagan 80's. While it graciously walks the fine line of "retro-cool" and "cheesy as hell", it comes off as a legit song. It's hard not to think of this band as gimmicky, because they flirt with so many different styles, but unlike bands who have sunk into the black hole category of "novelty act" (The Darkness, anyone?) - this band comes off as a group of musicians who just have a knack for nailing a billion different sounds, completely spot on with every one. This one holds all the d.n.a. of a sad country bar gem that should have been born back in 1979.
Two Halves - Nostalgic and 60's inspired - sounds like a Ronnie and Phil Spector song that never was, borderline be-bop but totally smothered in the sad reality of getting older...and the loneliness that sometimes goes along with it. They do a great job of masking the depressing notions behind it with sun-shiny 60's inspired pop - not unlike the famed Wall of Sound. A definite high-point of the album.
Keeping on their experimental side, Smokin' from Shootin' brings out crazy electro pulses that build like the accelerating heartbeat of telling an ex-lover off, good and proper. Mighty and triumphant - a big ravaged landscapey MESS after a war, sad but still crunchy. Hence, I'm guessing - the smoking gun. Smokin'...from shootin'.
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream part II - While it doesn't pick up where part 1 left off, packs a hell of a lot more punch. Again the disco baselines are back - very Electric 6 meets Of Montreal - catchy as hell - and SUPER poppy...country tinged...but it manages miraculously to not be lame.
While country is nothing new to this band, the pop, funk and disco elements are testament to the fact that this is a fearless group of musicians, pressing on - who, rather than refuse to stay and rot in a genre - insist on pushing the envelope and challenging rock and roll conventions by dropping little nuggets of sonic acid like Evil Urges on our unsuspecting ears.
And as Martha Stewart would say, "that's a very good thing".
- Dan MacDonald