As easy as the record is to listen to, discerning a complete tale from the songs proves to be much more challenging, but in the most fun way possible.
Although it seems clear that he is an artist in control, and an artist who pays attention to the process and structure of his music, there is something about these songs that seems distinctly relaxed and … groovy.
Over the course of nine songs, James crafts an album that’s equal parts weighed down by loneliness and lifted up with hope, sometimes distant and other times fully engaged.
You can delve as deep into My Morning Jacket's back catalogue or James' subconscious demoing and you won't find anything that's as centred and consistent in its themes as this record.
While addressing the same themes he's been tweaking for more than a decade now, James adds a new trick to his ever-expanding repertoire
Overall, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God is a good rather than great album, lacking some of the spine-tingling dynamics of My Morning Jacket but delivering a consistent vision than many of their efforts.
When you put out an album containing just nine tracks there's no place to hide, and everything here has its rightful place.
Regions of Light and Sound of God is a laid-back affair, hardly the max-effort of some Jacket jams, and one can feel James really enjoying himself.
Fans alienated by My Morning Jacket’s more recent material will find plenty of comfort here.
Sometimes James seems to get lost in the mythology of his own album, letting the general atmosphere and sense of wonder take precedence over the songs and arrangements.
It adds up to a more than decent effort compared to most of James’s contemporaries then, but still the same old nagging doubts of a great talent somehow unfulfilled.
If anything, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God resembles what a Radiohead album recorded in the 1920s might sound like.
Jim James это сольный проект вокалиста группы My Morning Jacket. Поговаривают, что когда в 2008 он упал со сцены в Айове, это его и вдохновило на запись своего дебютного альбома. У него было куча времени, и это альбом продуман до каждых мелочей.
Slight, southern tunes, slowly coming out of his personal canvas, deliberately lost on his psycho-dramatic paintings.
1 | State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.) 5:17 | 100 |
2 | Know Til Now 6:26 | 90 |
3 | Dear One 3:10 | 94 |
4 | A New Life 4:27 | 87 |
5 | Exploding 2:00 | 88 |
6 | Of The Mother Again 3:53 | 89 |
7 | Actress 4:38 | 100 |
8 | All Is Forgiven 4:56 | 97 |
9 | God's Love To Deliver 3:36 | 100 |