My Morning Jacket is MMJ's most satisfying work since 2008's Evil Urges, and a splendid example of what can happen when their group mind is in sync.
My Morning Jacket – their first album in six years - finds a supremely engaging, often blissfully beautiful halfway point between the glossy eccentricities of more recent MMJ albums and those old slow-burn yet highly combustible 'jam band' dynamics.
There are enough twists to keep even longtime fans on their toes. It’s what makes them so consistently intriguing and will hopefully keep the members inspired, and inspirational, for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, My Morning Jacket .... is frequently thrilling, and its pilfering from America's classic rock catalogue — including The Allman Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band and Crazy Horse - is affectionate and celebratory.
These are simple messages, delivered earnestly, but the magic of this group has always been their ability to translate the elemental into the transcendental. It is a miracle they pull off frequently on My Morning Jacket, with confidence and inspiration, every moment a fresh beginning.
My Morning Jacket have long been established fixtures in the canon of must-see indie-rock acts. But maybe they needed to remind themselves not only of that position, but also of how it feels to make music purely for the sake of pleasing themselves. My Morning Jacket is the sound of that realization.
On My Morning Jacket, Jim James sifts through perceptions about technology and nature, offering a treatment for getting washed away by modernity.
This feels like the album of a group recharged; lent a new perspective by the pandemic, perhaps.
My Morning Jacket, unfortunately, is simply more of the same thing – good music sans anything really innovative or captivating.
Concentrating hours of freeform takes into the baggy shape of 11 songs, My Morning Jacket’s ninth LP achieves the dubious goal of nailing a “jam band album” on the first try.
I don't like to not like a My Morning Jacket record, but this is them scraping the bottom of the barrel. Sounds totally uninspired, I wouldn't be surprised if they called it quits, though I hope they continue so they can redeem themselves.
Devil's In the Details and Least Expected were really the only songs that weren't bad. In Color and I Never Could Get Enough were almost there, but just painfully mediocre.
After having released several solo albums and last years The Waterfall II (which came across as more of a B-sides drop), Jim James returns to My Morning Jacket with a self-titled effort, an album that attempts to capture some of the energy of their live sets, but doesn’t quite get there. Listening through we do get the 7 minute “In Color” and “Never In The Real World”, with both benefit from having explosive finishes and “The Devil’s In The ... read more
FAVORITE TRACK: Out Of Range, Pt. 2
LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: Love Love Love
I actually never heard a My Morning Jacket song until very recently- it was actually their cover of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters that really blew me away. So I was intrigued to see what this band had up their sleeves.
The first half of this is really boring. The first two tracks are so painful to get through. But after that, it's alright. It's pretty good psychedelic pop. The 60s sounding piano on Least Expected ... read more
1 | Regularly Scheduled Programming 3:44 | 71 |
2 | Love Love Love 3:42 | 63 |
3 | In Color 7:20 | 76 |
4 | Least Expected 4:39 | 76 |
5 | Never In The Real World 5:48 | 62 |
6 | The Devil's In The Details 9:09 | 74 |
7 | Lucky To Be Alive 4:24 | 63 |
8 | Complex 4:18 | 66 |
9 | Out Of Range, Pt. 2 4:26 | 66 |
10 | Penny For Your Thoughts 4:47 | 62 |
11 | I Never Could Get Enough 8:16 | 66 |
#43 | / | Uncut |
#85 | / | RIFF |
/ | American Songwriter |