After the departure of a few band members, and the addition of a few new members, My Morning Jacket have returned with a new producer John Leckie (Radiohead’s The Bends). The result is Z, a work of such beauty and depth that it simply has to be considered as a contender for album of the year.
With a much more expansive sound, My Morning Jacket haven’t shunned their alt-country roots, merely expanded them in every direction. In every department this album shines. Jim Jame’s voice has always been one of the band’s strengths (think Neil Young meets Thom Yorke meets Jeff Buckley), and it’s a joy to hear his whooping falsetto over the outro of opening track Wordless Chorus. The addition of a keyboard player to the band’s ranks really becomes apparent on this track and elsewhere on the album.
What’s impressive is the range of sounds and genres here, all delivered to near-perfection. Gideon has shimmering guitars and lush melodies reminiscent of Radiohead at their best. Off The Record combines Beach Boys harmonies with ska and post-punk, before drifting off into a strangely ambient last few minutes. And then there’s Into The Woods, arguably the album’s highlight. Here, the band take the template of a folk song, and dress it up with a spooky carnival organ (always a good thing) and an oom-pah-pah rhythm. It opens to the best lyric on the album, “A kitten on fire/a baby in a blender/both sound as sweet as a night of surrender”. Sheer poetry.
As proven with their earlier works, these guys are fine musicians, and there’s plenty of riffy material here too. The epic Lay Low is the kind of classic rock even Pearl Jam seem incapable of these days. What A Wonderful Man is infectious in its optimism, like a more guitar-heavy Flaming Lips. Knot Comes Loose provides a few moments of calm reflection.
And then there’s the final track. Dondante is the album’s showpiece, a delicate but unsettling ballad at first, with James’ falsetto once again evoking comparisons with Jeff Buckley. Then the song bursts into life with a crashing chorus, then proceeding with a Pink Floyd-like explosion of guitars, before drawing the album to a gentle close.
It showcases another of the album’s strengths: its great depth. There are plenty of songs here with a sense of immediacy about them: What A Wonderful Man, Anytime, and then there are songs like Dondante, Gideon and It Beats 4 U whose intricacies just get better with every listen. For all of the comparisons with other artists made above, this is a genuinely original and innovative album which you’ll listen to for years to come.
Forget the supposed sensitive types of Coldplay and Keane. Along with the Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket make them look very silly indeed.
Key Moments: Gideon, What A Wonderful Man, Into The Woods, Dondante