I’ll be honest, I’ve never actually listened to a My Morning Jacket album all the way through. I do know that I really dig a lot of their songs off of their albums, Z (2005) and The Waterfall (2015), but haven’t sat down and listened to one cover to cover, yet. The band plays incredibly tight, and Jim James has an incredible voice. I really dig a lot of Jim James’ solo projects, like his Tribute To (2017) and Tribute To 2 (2017), as well as his more recent work with Teddy Abrams & Louisville Orchestra with The Order of Nature (2019). I guess it’s time to jump into this one, with that said.
“Spinning My Wheels” creates a large backdrop in the beginning, and suddenly the piano comes in with Jim James’ singing. Wow, this one has such a delicately huge sound with the piano and the bass and reverberation in the soundscape. The bass has a nice roll to it, very enjoyable to listen to. It sounds like more layers keep getting added to this very spacious, delicate song. The melody reminds me a lot of My Morning Jacket’s song, “Wordless Chorus” off of their album, Z (2005). That outro really has almost a Trent Reznor sort of vibe to it, very interesting.
“Still Thinkin” has an almost playful feel to it at the beginning, and the organ almost creates a circus-like feel to it. The piano evokes dream-like states, while the bass keeps the song moving along. This song has a lot of forward momentum to it, especially in the drums and bass, and reminds me of a John Lennon type of song, or even Liam Gallagher’s solo stuff. Ooh, that switch up in the song is super interesting to me, really enhances the chaotic, almost dream-like state evoked by the rest of the song in an almost jazz-like manner.
Oh wow, “Climbing The Ladder” has a really interesting feel to the intro that sounds like if The Flying Burrito Bros wrote a song in 2020. Very interesting the way the guitars, and subsequently the song, feels like its sliding around behind the scenes. Wow, that tempo change up is super interesting, it definitely gives the song a certain psychedelic feel to it. I really dig the electric guitar fuzz in this one. And the licks are super tasty as well.
“Feel You” sounds like a ballad from Jim James and the band of sorts. The guitar work from both Jim James and Carl Broemel is really awesome, it feels very personal. I am super into the bass from Tom Blankenship right now. All the instruments feel like they’re mildly echoing one another – almost in a very tight jam band sense, though there’s a definite song structure that is audible. Wow, those synth fillers in the background really add a great layer to the song’s soundscape. Holy smokes, the guitar solo just came in. There’s so much feeling evoked in this one as it plays on a platform set forth by the rest of the instrumentation. Bo Koster does such a great job with the keyboards and adding to the platform of the song alongside the bass and percussion. Wow, the outro with the keys just came on, and it was definitely quite beautiful.
Wow, the keyboard introduction to “Beautiful Love (Wasn’t Enough)” is almost jazz-like, and the reverb adds a great effect to the tonality of it. I really dig the spacious beats in this one, it gives the sentiment a stronger effect. Wow, the fuzz of the guitars in the background almost reminds me of shoegazing a bit, but they’re not really the main focus of the instrumentation to consider it as such.
“Magic Bullet” has a really sweet building feel to it right away. Oh wow, I dig the beat to this one. It’s almost got a funkiness, and maybe even a little bit of disco to it in a certain sense. Oh wow, more instruments seem to come into the track as it rolls along, and it really continues to give to the momentum that the track seems to be building. I really dig the background vocal effect to this one. Oh that saxophone is just nasty, in a really awesome way. Oh wow, the percussion has a bit of a vibe switch-up, and I’m really digging it. This track is awesome; it’s so very dynamic that I’m constantly finding myself on a ride from one instrument to the next. Awesome tune.
“Run It” has a really awesome acoustic feel to it, that kind of reminds me of some of the 1970s NOLA music I’ve been listening to lately, a bit of both Dr. John as well as Allen Toussaint – it’s almost celebratory in sound. Jim James’ voice really adds to the feel of the folkiness to the song. This album is really flying by right now, I can’t believe I’m already 7 tracks into this listen.
“Wasted” has an almost late 70s/early 80s power rock feel to the guitar playing, mixed with some gospel vocals. Definitely seems to be a bit psychedelic to me, and almost has like a climbing up a mountain’s peak feeling when you’re nearly there. I really dig the cymbals in the song. Oh this is sweet, there’s a little jam session happening in the song, with different instruments taking the song in completely different directions – almost like demonstrating where different paths lead on a trail. Wow, the horns/saxophone (<-not sure which, or if it's both) really can add a lot of oomph to the certain parts of the song. Wow, things really slow down near the end of this, creating some sort of epic jam for the outro of the song. The drums from Patrick Hallahan in the outro are absolutely sick, I must add.
"Welcome Home" is such a soft, delicate contrast to the previous track. With only acoustic guitar and Jim James for the most part at first, but additional layers like some background vocals, keyboards, and drums all come in eventually to create a very nice, personal, almost ballad of sorts. Definitely a very warm, welcoming song.
Oh wow, "The First Time" immediately gives me impressions of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, and The Explorers Club as well with the way the vocals are arranged. The instrumentation has a very warm, almost swirly, yet still tightly arranged feel to the whole things. I really love the bass from Blankenship, it gives such a warm, rounding feel to the whole tune, that almost sets a platform for the rest of the instruments - even the drums seem to be using the bass as a platform to give a really nice, almost airy performance in the tune. Wow, this dream-like state produced by the song feels like it's being slowly and subtly wrapped up by the band. The guitars and keyboard play so tightly, while giving plenty of room to breathe - it's really awesome. This song is a really beautiful ending to the album.
Wow, I ought to sit down and listen to some other My Morning Jacket albums some time, this one was really spectacular. I never listened to The Waterfall (2015) all the way through, but this sequel sure has me interested in doing so. Anyone who likes some great folksy rock and roll (without much bluesiness to it, I might add), ought to enjoy this album. If you do give it a listen, I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I did.
-A