|
 |
My Morning JacketZ SonyBMG My Morning Jacket have been sitting below the radar of the mainstream for some time now, but I suspect things are about to change. You see, 'Z' is to MMJ what 'OK Computer' is to Radiohead and 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' to Wilco: the album that changes everyone's preconceptions about what the band is all about. In the case of MMJ, here's a band with a distinctly countrified, southern-rock background opening their new album with two atmospheric pieces each built on pulsing bass-synth lines (Wordless Chorus and It Beats For You). Later they segue into jaunty reggae on Off The Record, which itself end with a spacey, Air-like coda. The centrepiece of the record, meanwhile, is a dark and gorgeous Doors-like psychodrama, Into The Woods. Over an ominous lilting organ, Jim James' sweet melody belies the terrible threat of the story: 'A kitten on fire / a baby in a blender / both sound as sweet as a night of surrender... I fell off the rail and into the woods / where did I go?' Like the rest of the album, nothing is quite what it should be... Elsewhere MMJ channel Big Star with What A Wonderful Man, Wilco on the beautiful piano ballad Knot Comes Loose and our own Died Pretty on the big, cinematic and soaring Gideon and the epic closer Dondante, while the glorious powerpop of Anytime is surely going to be the great big fat hit that The Replacements never had. Indeed, it's really only on the mid-tempo rocker Lay Low, with its extended Skynyrd-like guitar solo outro, that MMJ remind you of where they came from. But for all the challenges that MMJ throws out on 'Z', there's another story here as well, and it's this: 'Z' is quite simply a beautiful, beautiful pop record, one that, because of its layers, will endure. Although still sounding like it was recorded in a wheat silo, Jim James' yearning, soulful voice is just lovely; the melodies equally so. And, it's an album; for all the apparently disparate stylings, everything sounds so coherent and logical, both within songs, and in terms of the pacing and positioning of songs. Indeed, some critics around the world are comparing this record to 'OK Computer' in terms of just how good it is; I think that's stretching the analogy a bit far, but I do know that for a fully realised vision, albums will not come much better this year than 'Z'.  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine