My Morning Jacket reviews and interviews have long been known for containing certain buzzwords and phrases.
Read through any article ever written about the band and you would be hard pressed not to find the words beard, reverb, southern rock, good old boys, guitar heroes or live band. Not that the press is to blame, however, because many of these words were staples of the band's sound and persona.
Not anymore.
Upon the release of the new MMJ album "Evil Urges," the band threw off the restrictions placed on them by those terms, and took its once roots-rooted sound in an entirely new direction.
MMJ front man, Jim James, said in a radio interview that for "Evil Urges," the band wanted to make an un-rock album, and make it they did. "Evil Urges" lets go many of the guitar soloing, beat driving rock 'n' roll aspects of past albums like "It Still Moves" and "At Dawn," opting to replace them with elements of R&B, electronic, jazz, soul and other genres.
This is not to say the band has lost any of its intensity, however. On the contrary, everything that made MMJ stand out from the beginning is still prevalent, but represented in a new way. For example, where the vocal tracks for the band's past albums were recorded in grain silos to maximize echo, electronic effects are now used to make James' trademark ethereal voice an entirely new instrument, capable of wholly different forms of expression.
The extreme shift of style on "Evil Urges" may not strike a good chord with fans of MMJ's past work, however. The fast paced and sometimes caustic rhythms combined with strange new instrumentations may send the southern rock crowd running back to the Ole Smokies.
Though, there are still some elements of the band's past to nullify old fans. A dreamy steel guitar shows up in a couple of "Evil Urges'" slower ballads and there are still a hand full of guitar solos, although they are treated more like a garnish than the main dish.
MMJ have even strayed away from its habit of filling its albums to the maximum memory capacity with lengthy songs. A record eight songs on "Evil Urges" fall below the four minute mark.
There are elements to the album that beckon the thought that MMJ may just be messing with its fans. Songs like "Highly Suspicious" have James imitating Prince while his band sings a repetitive chorus that could have been lifted from a Madonna track. Also, after the album ends with the final soothing chords of "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 2," there is a six second track of unbearable noise and James muttering something in the studio afterward. It is almost as if MMJ wanted people to feel put off by the album.
"Evil Urges" is almost too much of a shift to be a permanent new direction for the band. The album has many of the same vibes that the Black Keys latest "Attack and Release" had upon its release. Perhaps "Evil Urges" is just the band's way of shaking the funk out of their system. Perhaps fans can expect the good old boys to return back to their bearded, reverb drenched, guitar pickin', live playin', grain bin recordin', southern rockin' selves on a future release.
Perhaps, perhaps not.
If not, the new, more sophisticated, more produced MMJ has the potential to grow on listeners, opening up an entirely new road for the good old boys to travel.
CASEYWELSCH@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
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