My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

[grady]

The new album is out there. Anyone given it a listen yet?

I'm headed home on lunch to go seek it out and listen to it for the remainder of my work day.

[crank]

I'm curious to see what Mr. Warner thinks of it.

I'm not sure.
It's good for what it is, but don't go listening to it looking for a record like "Z"

the Prince influences are hard to miss.

[grady]

I've given the album two listens and it's a bit of a mixed bag with me at the moment. I wonder if it might have been my all around shitty wednesday at work that contributed to it or just not really liking what I was hearing.

That said, the first three tracks really feel like a departure then there is a sense of familiarity that returns with I'm Amazed onward through the albums conclusion.

Earlier in the morning I was playing the album during my first listen and a co-worker really didn't like it and had some rather harsh criticism of it and made it through only four tracks before vacating the room(partially due to work demands, but also at a relief as he put it from the sounds emanating from my speakers on my desk).

I wonder if Scott will post some thoughts here.

[Scott Warner]

Hey gents!

It's a pretty good record but not the next step I think some of us were expecting from the band. I think a lot of long time fans are shocked by some of the first few tracks but personally I'm shocked that they really only mix up the formula a bit on about four tracks - the rest is pure, unfiltered MMJ with a little less reverb and 150% more Skynard.

This said, there's nothing bad here. It's all pretty good to great. The title track is a fantastic evolution of the band's template, "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part One" is a nice bit of fluffy pop music and the second part almost sounds like the band was listening to modern Balaeric music like A Mountain of One and Studio. As expected, "Highly Suspicious" has been a highly polarizing track - I'm a little disappointed with the studio version as it strips out some of the layers and wanky riffs from the live performances and goes very compressed n' minimal in comparison... it's almost as if they wanted to create a Queens of the Stone Age song with some Prince touches. You have to admit it's difficult to get the chant in the chorus of the track out of your head.

But I have to admit that songs like "I'm Amazed" and "Thank You Too" sound like a band doubling back on itself and I'm not surprised that super fans like them. For me, these are the kinds of tracks where the live experience (which is admittedly STRONG with this band) will probably make or break them for me.

So yeah. We're in a holding pattern here! MMJ are taking baby steps.

[crank]

Okay, so after about 10 listens I like it. I really have a hard time getting at least two if not three songs out of my head.

So i guess, I'm wondering why.
Why did they do this and what were they aiming for? They seem to be taking cues from the flaming lips as well with the production values and the kind of goofy riffs. I'm by no means an expert, as I've not seen them live ever, but I can tell you it's like they are aiming for pop, and the radio with some of these songs.

Highly Suspicious is their 3 minute pop song.

i like it, but not in the same was as "Z" or "it still moves"

i'm interested to hear your reactions next week after you've ingested it more...
cr
an
k