The Waterfall - Album Reviews

[johnnYYac]

The Skinny (UK) 

4/5 stars

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

On The Waterfall, Jim James sounds like a man at ease. With his 2013 solo album put to bed, My Morning Jacket's first record in four years returns the veteran Kentuckians to their mid-noughties best. Where Circuital could sound forced and James' proggy urges had infiltrated their music to the point where one more freewheeling guitar solo would have invoked the spirit of Rick Wakeman, Believe and Like A River are lighter, simpler and relentlessly upbeat.

There's barely an ounce of fat on show as the record veers between the band's country rawk roots, revelling in dashes of blues on In Its Infancy and the delicately finger-picked Get the Point. The Waterfall will rightly go down as a high point in My Morning Jacket's output; an album to restore some faith in the somewhat directionless Americana genre, but above all, it's a hugely enjoyable ten songs where Jim James' voice soars to heights this band haven't been in nearly a decade. [Stu Lewis]

[johnnYYac]

Relix

[Anu]

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/04/album-review-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

My Morning Jacket records are tinged with alt country's spirit even when they aren't entirely indebted to its tone. There's always been a folksy, small-town feel to the music and the methods, recording albums in a grain silo and a church gym a decade apart. It's in the DNA; the Louisville band's 1999 debut, The Tennessee Fire, was indie covering country rock. It felt like a jam band performing outdoors at the height of a Southern summer. The rest of their catalog, though sometimes fluctuating stylistically and aesthetically, is imbued with that same warm energy. There's a song like "Old Sept. Blues" on each of their albums.

They didn't become the band billed second from the top on a Coachella Sunday in 2008 before adding keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel in 2004 following the departure of founding member Johnny Quaid and keyboardist Danny Cash. The change prompted de facto leader and singer-songwriter Jim James to deviate from the band's then-patented formula, enlisting help from onetime Radiohead producer John Leckie (The Bends) for 2005's groundbreaking Z, which transformed My Morning Jacket from bluegrass-blooded folkies to a big name on festival tickets.

Z has often been called their OK Computer, and 2008's Evil Urges was the band cashing that check, using boosted creative license to explore even wonkier territory: subdued, pedestrian ranges, soft rock, some heavily feedbacking, blues-flecked guitars, and whatever "Highly Suspicious" is.

Their most recent album, 2011's Circuital, was more Z than Evil Urges, but not much like either. It exists more as a continuation than a sequel, creeping through eerie but soulful space rock and nimbly dancing around hymnal melodies. It sidestepped previous forays into ska and funk but maintained the original mission: a pursuit of interesting and dynamic rhythms. Meanwhile, as James continued to tinker with sounds from beyond, the lyrics seemed to suggest doubt was the catalyst for his restlessness: On "Victory Dance" he coos, "Should I lift the dirt and plant the seed even though I'll never grow?/ Should I wet the ground with the sweat from my brow and believe in my good work?" He seems to have embraced the latter on the band's seventh and latest album, The Waterfall.

The Waterfall is a My Morning Jacket crash course. It's where indie folk meets alt country head-on. It's Jim James hopscotching his way through past records with a far more lush, scenic destination in mind. There's a sort of idealistic, rustic vibe, the kind associated with the landscapes on postcards or "America the Beautiful". This is "one man penning letters in a log cabin by a pine forest" country rock with stringy banjo-esque riffs and heavy, isolated kick drums. But it subtly has big stage potential, too; the songs, though traditionalist, are equipped for riff-rocking and hair-flopping on any platform. "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" and "Tropics (Erase Traces)" belong in the band's epic live sets. The album bridges the gap between the small-town feel and their current top-billing status.

Underneath the stunning sonic scenery there's a perceptive, generation-bending kind of songwriting about lost love and nostalgia that's equal parts love letter in movable type and triple-texting an ex. On "Get the Point", James sings, "I never have an answer/ I never seem to be there for you/ But there's only so many ways that one can look at a given situation/ And I wish you all the love in this world and beyond ... I hope you get the point." He leads with "I" statements, but there's a subtle condescension to his tone. It's a dump job written ambiguously. James does a lot of his writing like this. "For a time there by the sea/ There was only you and me/ In a land that time forgot/ You uttered sweet forget-me-nots," he waxes poetically in "Only Memories Remain", reminiscing before snapping back to the present: "Sometimes life has other ideas."

This sweetly written, often optimistic shorthand, which crams complex ideas into short sentences ("Only get one chance but you seem to always think twice") or frames them with sketches of simpler ideas, complements the striking atmospherics. There's a moment on "Believe (Nobody Knows)" where James' soaring cadence, the clicking keyboard, and the drums interlock seamlessly as he shouts a simple platitude: "Believe, nobody knows for sure." The frontman howls to open "Spring (Among the Living)", where accompanying riffs bounce along the outside of an admission of previous isolationism. He croons in a lower register with a gravelly tone suited to the surroundings. It'd be an oversight not to mention That Voice, which is one of the main attractions, and he doles out his liquid falsetto when needed. One of those times is on the elastic "Like a River", which is probably the album's most breathtaking treasure. My Morning Jacket harken back to their alt country roots on The Waterfall and create a remarkable vision of the American countryside in the process, one as filled with solitude as it is with wonder.

Essential Tracks: "Like a River", "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)", and "Get the Point"

[MMJCOBRA]

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall
BY JANNE OINONEN, 27 APRIL 2015, 09:30 BST
8/10
 

"Believe!", commands the opening track of The Waterfall. Which is kind of appropriate, as self-belief is the quality My Morning Jacket's seventh album has in abundance. The Louisville, Kentucky five-piece have never made a bad record, but the last two (2008's Evil Urges and 2011's Circuital, the former's unfocused gallop through genres both suggesting an identity crisis and slowing down the lift-up initiated by 2005's masterful Z and 2006's steaming live double and film Okonokos) found them struggling to completely convince; these ten tracks mark a decisive return to the band's eccentric, uniquely warm and fuzzy top form.

The confidence in the band's prowess on display is somewhat surprising, considering the album's - literally - pained origins. Recording started two years ago, but frontman Jim James soon suffered a debilitating back injury that forced the type of extended delay that often leads to a total loss of momentum. Relationship turmoil also put in an unwelcome guest appearance. Throughout music history, misery has frequently been linked to an increase of creative potential, and so it is with The Waterfall. It may lack the individual killer tracks of Z or the alluring, reverb-bingeing analogue cocoon of It Still Moves (2003), but this might just be My Morning Jacket's most cohesive and fully realised offering to date.

There are detectable dark undercurrents: the clenched-fist frustration that fires up the big riffing of "Big Decision", the jittery rhythms seemingly echoing the awkward exchanges of a couple at the end of their shared road; the palpable heartbreak that fuels the uncharacteristically direct and nakedly personal break-up lament "Get The Point", a pedal steel enriched, wistfully beautiful olive branch to fans longing for the cosmic American grooves of At Dawn (2001) and It Still Moves. However, this is ultimately optimistic stuff, peppered by a sense of a decidedly unfashionable wide-eyed wonder, and all the more impressive and appealing for it. Sessions took place at a seafront house in Stinson Beach, California that used to belong to no lesser a deity of the psychedelic American music tradition that MMJ pledge allegiance to than Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, and although by no means sleepy, The Waterfall sounds tailor-made for unhurried, possibly bleary-eyed strolls down the beach at dusk.

At its finest, The Waterfall balances between mad and magnificent. "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" proves worthy of its proggy title, as the multi-part epic moves from an almost laughably ponderous recital to sections of gradually intensifying beauty, hopping through unpredictable shifts in mood and tone that initially confuse before casting a deep spell. "Like A River", meanwhile, escalates from sparse picking to a torrent of tribal chanting, its head spinning aural overload married to one of James' most yearning melodies.

Complex and densely constructed cuts like this don't necessarily open up immediately, and the multi-layered production - imagine an aural equivalent of a particularly luxurious rug - may initially seem like an overly busy attempt to gloss over the cracks in the material. We're certainly a long way off from the days when James' vocals were recorded in a grain silo for added reverb and MMJ's records echoed with the spaces between the notes, and there are moments when The Waterfall sounds like the recording schedule may have been a bit too open-ended (check out the "Wanted Dead Or Alive" sound-alike intro to the otherwise fine "Tropics (Erase Traces"). Keep listening, however, and the songs soon reveal their full charms. MMJ albums in the past have always included at least one slice of lightweight fluff, but the band seem particularly keen to share something of substance with every track this time around, none more so than the stunning slow-burn of closer "Only Memories Remain", which features the album's most striking sound: that of a truly remarkable band playing more or less live in a room.

[MMJCOBRA]

http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/waterfall

Smooth tools deployed sharply

The output of Kentucky's My Morning Jacket has always charted the group's progression. Their sound is uniquely traceable from their influences but, nevertheless, unmistakeable. Its incarnation on their seventh album sounds optimistic – perhaps from a slicker period in music – lodged somewhere around the 80s but with lyrics that hint at a recent emergence from darkness.

Just as water itself never stands still, frontman Jim James details break-ups, numerous religious epiphanies and the prospect of an unknown future, situations most movingly raised when they appear directed at individuals. On Get The Point, the Blackbird-esque chorus offers, "I hope you get the point/That our love is done," that a chapter has closed.

Of course, that's only half the story. There's always another chapter, another coda or keyboard motif in MMJ's music. Despite the crossroads much of The Waterfall suggests, the band and their leader seem wholly, spiritually aligned – thrillingly so, in fact.

Q&A Jim James

Water seems a key symbol across certain tracks here?

Yes. Water was very important. This is the first record we've made so close to the ocean. We were looking at it all the time through the window: the beautiful curve of Stinson Beach – so epic. It's like we were on our own planet and this ocean had a special energy to it. The sand glows.

Many of the most bittersweet moments here are about trying to forget the past?

Every record represents a time capsule of the three years before it. So it's filled with everything... at least as far as my life has gone so far – loss, rebirth. I do feel like right now is a significant time for the universe. I feel it's this way for most people I ask. At the time of recording I felt like the page was in the middle: one chapter was over, but the next hadn't started.

A lot of the album at least sounds very upbeat. Are you optimistic about the future?

I'm optimistic in general. I know things go in cycles and I believe if something is broken it can usually be fixed if you believe it can, and can work towards that with positive conscious intention.

Do you listen to other music when you're recording, or try to avoid it?

God, I listen to music all the time, but usually not when we're working because my head's already full of music. But I hate it when someone plays another record in the studio – "Let's try to get that Beatles sound," or whatever... That drives me crazy.

Is anything too personal to write about?

It sounds so cliché but there are no rules. I write in different ways – one song will just be an abstract word puzzle, but then, sure, I also write about very personal things. I try to write about them in an abstract way and never mention any direct personal names or details. I'm a very private person and try to draw clear lines between the different worlds I inhabit.

As told to Jake Kennedy

4 stars  4 stars  4 stars  4 stars
ATO |
Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
© 2015 Diamond Publishing

[CC]

http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2015/04/28/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-ato-records/

God Is In The Tv Zine (UK)
Rating: ★★★★½

My my my. Methinks Jim James has been digging through crates of old soul vinyl since 2011's 'Circular'. There are traces of Marvin Gaye and Al Green all over the place, as well as a smattering of soft rock, while the frontman has clearly been perfecting his falsetto in front of the mirror on a daily basis.

All of this makes for a quite enthralling aural experience, for this is what My Morning Jacket albums have become – an experience rather than the casual, throwaway time-killing exercise that makes up a large proportion of today's musical output.

'The Waterfall' is arguably MMJ's most surprising album. Right off the bat, 'Believe (Nobody Knows)' is unquestionably the most positive, uplifting song they have recorded to date. Such is the euphoria of this gargantuan tune that you can easily imagine it being used as the television theme to an end of season sports relegation battle; an encouragement to those who may be floundering or have wilted – 'Believe', repeats James several times before the final payoff 'nobody knows...for sure'.Throw all your self help books away. This song is all you need to get you through. One can only hope that Cowell doesn't happen across it and dowse it in an Elbow-like bucket of oversaturation.

Whilst the latter composition would have slotted neatly onto the band's previous album, it is anything but representative of their current work, and next we move on to 'Compound Fracture', which gives a clearer indication of the subject I broached earlier – the classic soul of the 1970s and 1980s. It's a fine piece, though frustratingly, if I try to sing it, I find myself breaking into cheesy eighties boy band Brother Beyond's 'The Harder I Try', due to one miniscule molecule of melody sounding vaguely similar. But maybe that says more about me than Jim James...

Thank goodness then, for the comparable tranquility and ethereal beauty of 'Like A River' which follows. It has a celestial tone comparable to The Black Keys' 'Bullet In The Brain' and is a real fillip to the soul.
'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)', by contrast, begins like The Beta Band and becomes a faithful homage to Steely Dan, also incorporating the kind of searing guitar work evinced by Jonathan Wilson on his 'Desert Raven' earlier this decade.

One of the finest moments here though is the George Jones meets Harry Nilsson exasperation of the bittersweet break-up song 'Get The Point'. There's little to it really, bar Jones and an acoustic guitar, but it's so effective that I found myself returning to it time and again each time I finished listening to the album in full. 'There's only so many ways that one can look at a given situation, and I wish you all the love in this world and beyond', sings a beleagured James ruefully, as he tries awkwardly to explain to the object of his disaffection why they must part. It's a wholly unexpected interlude and a tremendous example of the depth and range of the vocalist's writing skills.

'Spring (Among The Living)' sounds inexplicably like The Klaxons, featuring a female backing vocal not unlike Clare Torry's on 'The Great Gig In The Sky', then we're back to the 70's sound of Philadelphia soul for 'Thin Line', but with a crunching guitar sound that recalls Will Sergeant in the Bunnymen's 'Porcupine' pomp.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, MMJ venture into early eighties AOR territory with 'Big Decisions', sounding a lot like Toto, in fact, yet somehow they manage to pull this off meritorially enough that it feels like a classic rock tune rather than anything wince inducing that the genre was so good at supplying.

The workmanlike 'Tropics (Erase Traces)' starts as though they've drafted Jimmy Page into the band momentarily and develops the classic rock machine still further until the seven minute curtain closer 'Only Memories Remain' brings proceedings down with a tender ballad that sounds like Neil Young wrote it for Marvin Gaye's sadly underappreciated 'Here, My Dear' album.

'The Waterfall' must surely considered amongst the contenders for Album Of The Year. Yet again, My Morning Jacket have crafted an absorbing record that is so easy to get lost in that you don't even TRY to find the exit. Brilliant.

[Tutofqueens]

http://pressplayok.com/review-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

ALBUMS
REVIEW: My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
Apr 28, 2015

4/5
RATING
If the first 90 seconds of an opening track can set the bar for an album, these 90 seconds will show you how it's done. The new record from American rock originals My Morning Jacket kicks off with a feel-good anthem to set your optimistically early barbecues alight, and continues in a similar vein. Phone Went West has to be one of our favourite alt-ballads of all time, so expectations have always remained high for Jim James and co to bring a healthy dose of lurve, all wrapped up in hundreds of guitar strings and a smothering of reverberated "ooh"s.

Single Big Decisions lead us to believe that this band certainly hasn't lost their sense of romance, or their ability to craft excellent rock songs, so we were keen to nab a good listen to the rest of the album asap. As Nana always said, "stick to the knitting", and thankfully, just as we hoped, this is exactly what The Waterfall does. Compound Fracture showcases James's deliciously understated vocals, enticing new listeners into this fine example of a fully fledged rock record that doesn't sound like the lead singer has been eating an angry wasps' nest for breakfast.



The pacey Like a River brings a gorgeous acoustic edge to proceedings, and raunchy electric-guitar-laced Thin Line soars high in the beauty stakes, evidencing that this is a rock band who aren't afraid to play with vocal harmonies and lashings of instrumentation. There's a permitted spattering of Americana mainstream easy-listening (read: sway-along cheese) in tracks such as In Its Infancy, Only Memories and mini-ditty Get The Point but the guitar riffs and the overall clever song structures can't fail to please the ears of discerning and (ch)easy listeners alike.

Despite the fact that there aren't any particularly unforgettable gut-wrenchers to replace our Phone Went West obsession, the production is still on-point and all of the tracks will translate incredibly well to live shows. There's a perfect balance of sounds, ranging from acoustic beauties to the tasteful BRING-THE-NOISE rock beasts like Believe, Tropics and Spring, all of which serve to cement My Morning Jacket as one of the most understanding and pleasing American rock exports of their time.

[MMJCOBRA]

http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/morning-jacket-waterfall

My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
(ATO) UK release date: 4 May 2015
3.5 stars

by Chris White | posted on 28 Apr 2015 in albums
 

image: http://www.musicomh.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-300x300.jpg

My Morning Jacket - The WaterfallAlthough they've never quite garnered the widespread attention and acclaim of contemporaries like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, over the past decade and a half Kentucky's My Morning Jacket have quietly put together a body of work that warrants them a place in the highest echelons of modern American independent music. Ever since their 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire, the band have expertly blended folk, country and space rock into a heady brew of Southern gothic capable of concocting both sublime beauty and oppressive drama in equal measure.

2011's Circuital was up there with their best work and now Jim James and company are back again with The Waterfall, which maintains their high standards. Rather like Neil Young (whose influence is deeply rooted within their sound) My Morning Jacket have always embraced two distinct styles – soft, harmony inflected acoustic balladry and epic, ragged guitar psychedelia. But while the Canadian maestro has generally recorded full albums in entirely one style or the other (think Harvest Moon and Ragged Glory for example, although Rust Never Sleeps is the exception that proves the rule) James's men have typically preferred to offer up a mixture of both in the same collection and The Waterfall by and large follows this tried and tested pattern.

Believe (Nobody Knows) kicks the album off on a stridently uplifting note, with spiralling synthesisers and a joyous vocal from James, who implores us to "roll the dice, sail the ship, and all doors will open". With its searing electric guitar riffs and simple chord progressions, it's by no means the most subtle song the band has ever recorded, but it certainly gets your attention from the off.

Compound Fracture continues in a similar vein, with a shuffling rhythm, falsetto vocals and further use of crunching guitars and synths recalling the glam rock rather than folk rock of the '70s – not entirely successfully. It's only with the eerie acoustics of third track Like A River that we encounter the more familiar ambience we associate with quintessential My Morning Jacket for the first time.

Get The Point is one of the highlights of the album: a beautiful, timeless slice of country-tinged storytelling, it recalls the best work of Harry Nilsson with its blissful simplicity. A poignant farewell to a relationship that's run out of steam, when James softly croons "I wish you all the love in this world and beyond... I guess you get the point our love is done" the sentiment is as stark as the melody is gorgeous.

In contrast, "Spring (Among the Living) was created by James dissecting then overlapping different elements of a conventionally recorded track on his laptop to produce an ever-shifting sound collage, with different elements fading in and out of the mix. While it's perhaps understandably not the smoothest listening experience, it proves that on their seventh album, My Morning Jacket still have plenty of new ideas.

The Waterfall's last few tracks are consistently strong. Thin Line is the kind of coruscating, sweeping guitar rock the band has done so well ever since their earliest albums, while Big Decisions is perhaps the most lyrically acerbic song here, with James voicing the frustrations many of us have from time to time with prevaricating friends as he snarls "what do you want me to do, make all the big decisions for you?" Tropics (Erase Traces) perfectly distills the West Coast vibe of Déjà vu-era Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young before the final track, Only Memories Remain – all cooing vocals and deliciously languid guitar work – glides along sedately for seven minutes to bring proceedings to a close.


Read more at http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/morning-jacket-waterfall#Kdc7o6pQuQOLCwGT.99

[Tutofqueens]

http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

In 2013, the Kentucky-based My Morning Jacket released their Grammy-nominated album, 'Circuital', and toured the US with Bob Dylan and Wilco. Following the tour they shifted their focus to recording, and the band took to the breath-taking location of Stinson Beach in Northern California, and created what would eventually become 'The Waterfall'.

Perched on the hilltop studio overlooking the vast sands, they claim the location informed the album on a spiritual, as well as a musical, level. Certainly, the wistful introspection as a result of beautiful rural surroundings has had an effect.

The album deals with starkly emotional situations such as failed relationships with a poignant, poetic beauty.  Thanks to slick production overseen by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Neko Case), there's a gloriously detailed and powerful sound. Moreover, the music has stark contrasts that work well to portray the emotions of singer Jim James.

Title track 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)' opens with heart-warming '60s psychedelic pop before bursting into an emphatic Minus The Bear–esque overdrive section. Elsewhere, 'Spring (Among The Living)' takes a similar approach; beginning down-tempo, it reaches gritty solos and howls that evoke Iggy Pop by the end.

The album is another typially broad statement from My Morning Jacket. 'Get The Point' is a raw ensemble of acoustic guitar and vocals, while heartfelt album closer 'Only Memories Remain' is similarly mellow  - yet boasts intoxicating lead guitar that nods to David Gilmour. In contrast, lead single 'Big Decisions' is stadium rock through and through with its commanding vocals and huge kick drum.

In spite of this eclecticism, the album feels like a coherent sketch of Jim James' mind which - just like California's rugged northern coast - is a powerful and dreamy ride. Another Grammy nomination could well be on the cards.

7/10

[easy way]

Loving these reviews... Minus the Bear and Beta Band references. Don't mind if I do! 

[johnnYYac]

http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2015/04/28/42608/tuesday-reviewsday-my-morning-jacket-olivia-chaney/

(link includes 8+ minute radio stream)

Artist: My Morning Jacket
Album: "The Waterfall"
Songs: "Believe," "Big Decisions."

Notes: The Saviors of Southern-rock? That's the tag My Morning Jacket was saddled with when the first big buzz about the Louisville band started to happen in the early Naughts, as if they were picking up the legacy of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Well, given the way Jim James' vocals sometimes sound as if they were being beamed in from another planet, maybe southern Mars. Otherwise, not so much.

And yet here with The Waterfall, MMJ's seventh album and first in four years, there's a combination of mystery and sophistication that is undeniably southern, something that's been there from the start, but has only grown and taken on more nuance and character over the years. Sure, in concert the band can power it out with the best of them. On albums, though, it's all about the shadings, and often shadows.

That there's something extra going on is evidenced by four of the 10 tracks having second, parenthetical titles, starting with the glorious opener "Believe (Nobody Knows)." Yeah, there's a lot going on there, musically in the layered swells of quasi-orchestral grandeur and emotionally in the notion that there's something really big happening, but it's a secret.

Others, though, are quite direct, notably "Get the Point," which sounds like it could have been written by Jimmy Webb for Glen Campbell. And then on several songs we get Jim James the Lover Man, who has popped up now and then over the years, recently on one slinky track from the New Basement Tapes, the project in which he and several other artists wrote music to old, unused Bob Dylan lyrics. On The Waterfall, the yearning "Thin Line" and the closing, hurt "Only Memories Remain" both echo classic soul. Yes, southern soul. And very much from this planet.

[MMJCOBRA]

http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

My Morning Jacket: The Waterfall
My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall 3 out of 5
BY JEREMY WINOGRAD ON APRIL 29, 2015

Ever since their breakthrough in 2003 with It Still Moves, My Morning Jacket has seemingly made a concerted effort to run as far away as possible from the tangle of meaty classic-rock guitars and shouted-to-the-rafters hooks that made that album, and their live shows, seem so monolithic. While the band's commitment to bucking expectations is certainly commendable, the specific ways in which they've expanded their musical palette have been more successful (2005's electronic-tinged Z) than others (2008's all-over-the-place Evil Urges). That trend continues on the band's seventh album, The Waterfall, where their forays into synth-heavy late-'70s/early-'80s prog and arena rock are alternately inventive and bafflingly blockheaded.

My Morning Jacket hasn't completely shunned their old sound: The album's sole electric-guitar epic, "Spring (Among the Living)," is full of intricate riffs, ripping solos, and tonal left turns that keep it from feeling overlong at six minutes. And when they branch out into synth-pop, it's convincing enough. They put Bo Koster's soft, dated keyboard tones to good use on "Compound Fracture"; paired with frontman Jim James's silky falsetto, the result is a slick, early-'80s-style white-boys-doing-Marvin-Gaye pop song (think Elvis Costello's "Everyday I Write the Book").

The issue with The Waterfall is that without a snarling bed of guitars behind him, or at least a decent pop hook to wrap his stuffed-nose, marble-mouthed croon around, James often sounds like a painfully sincere, nonsensical cosmic dreamer a la Yes's Jon Anderson. In fact, the multi-part "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)"—featuring laugh-out-loud lines like "Again I stopped the waterfall by simply thinking!"—sounds like a second-rate Yes song, sans the musicianship or compositional forethought. Still, the doomy verse chords are at least harder-edged than anything on opener "Believe (Nobody Knows)," with its impossibly cheesy ascending chorus consisting of a childishly starry-eyed James wailing, "Beliiiiiiiiiieve!"

James sounds much more grounded elsewhere, especially during the album's more restrained, acoustic-based tracks, like the plaintive "Get the Point" and the willowy "Like a River." (It helps that the latter's hook is just some chanted mystical-sounding gibberish sung through a billowing cloak of reverb anyway.) And "Only Memories Remain" is, lyrically, just a fairly boilerplate breakup song whose staid atmosphere and traditional soul-ballad arrangement serve as a comfortable comedown. It also proves that My Morning Jacket are at their best when operating safely within less experimental paradigms.

LABEL: Capitol RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2015

[rincon2]

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20396-the-waterfall/
7.9

"I'm getting so tired of trying to always be nice," Jim James laments on "Big Decisions", the first single from My Morning Jacket's seventh LP The Waterfall. It's a surprising line from James, a guy responsible for a nearly weeklong music festival in Mexico named One Big Holiday. If there was a mean bone in his body, we haven't seen it before—My Morning Jacket lyrics are mostly praise and posi-vibes, feeling wonderful about a wonderful higher power for giving wonderful men the most wonderful voices. On "Big Decisions", James pushes back on the weight of a lopsided relationship, and the mundane, everyday struggle is charged with everything that has made My Morning Jacket one of the most likeable major American rock bands of the 21st century—reverberating Flying V guitars, James' expansive rebel yell, explosive harmonies and reverb capable of canvassing the entirety of Manchester, Tenn. and beyond. Even if James is reasserting himself in an atypically selfish way, it sounds like a triumph big enough for everyone to share.
Since My Morning Jacket abandoned the grain silo on their 2005 masterwork, their albums have followed a similar format: reverb or no reverb, James' saintly voice can redeem anything, so no song idea was too strange as long as it could still work at Bonnaroo. On that level, The Waterfall does little you haven't already heard from My Morning Jacket; they just regain the quality control that abandoned them on Evil Urges and ditch the damage control that pervaded Circuital. "Believe (Nobody Knows)" feels precision-engineered for the express purpose of opening My Morning Jacket's live show for the next two years: a big, windmilled chord anticipates every low-register repetition of the title in the prechorus, preparing for when James lets the final "BELIIIIIIIIIEVE" rip an octave higher. And that's where the Klieg lights inevitably hit, as does the same recognizable liftoff from "Wordless Chorus" and "Mahgeetah", a feeling that the possibilities of life itself are limitless, not just the range of My Morning Jacket. You can't fake something like "Believe (Nobody Knows)" if you haven't played in front of tens of thousands of festival goers.
Then again, few found fault with the first ten minutes of Evil Urges and Circuital; the measure of a My Morning Jacket album is their success at doing what's not expected of them. Compared to "Highly Suspicious" or "Holdin' on to Black Metal", the risks here are more manageable, the results far more successful: there's "Compound Fracture", which tails off into a coda of keyboard flutter and falsetto after flaunting Chvrches electronic stomp and Some Girls strut. "Get the Point" delivers James' most biting lyrics to date within a McCartney-esque acoustic ditty ("I'm trying to tell you plainly how I'm feeling day to day/ And I'm so sorry now that you ain't feeling the same way"). The electronic cut-and-paste of "Spring (Among the Living)" is a sleek, modernist iPad compared to "Cobra"'s bulky, retro ENIAC, while Eastern modes poking through "Like a River" and "Tropics (Erase Traces)" scent the chillout tent with lavender incense rather than the usual weed smoke. It reaffirms that MMJ are one of the most exciting American rock bands going when they're at their most generous, curious and restless, as they are here.
But "Big Decisions" puts the focus squarely on a new place for an MMJ record: the lyrics. The song, and the album as a whole, gives Jim James The Person center stage for what feels like the first time, instead of just The Voice of Jim James. As on record, James has been open with the big picture while skimping on the details—after 15 or so years of giving his all on stage, he's left just as much off it, and here he is at 37, nearly crippled by workplace injuries, spent from partying and wondering aloud in Rolling Stone, "what have I done wrong in every relationship I've been in until now?"
There are legitimate personal stakes here and The Waterfall allows for James to express some uncharacteristic negativity without dwelling on it. For a record of spiritual and romantic reckoning, it's remarkably level-headed and pragmatic. James sweetly coos over Chi-Lites psych-soul, "It's a thin line/ Between love and wasting my time", clearly assessing a broken situation to which he mends on "Get the Point": "Daydreaming of leaving/ I only had to do it." He wishes his ex the best of luck and then immediately celebrates the exhilarating, frightening rush of single living on "Spring (Among the Living)"—during each rambling guitar solo, you can picture James right-swiping to his heart's content.
For many, Jim James is basically synonymous with My Morning Jacket, so it's justifiable to find parallels in the rejuvenation of each—My Morning Jacket has another album on the way some time next year. It's welcome news for the band's fans, but maybe a bit disappointing considering how a predetermined release schedule usually results in two very good albums in place of one great one, and The Waterfall gets close to greatness. With a little troubleshooting, it might have matched At Dawn's cohesion or Z's dazzling diversity: The misty-eyed reflection of "Only Memories Remain" cycles back to a breakup narrative on Side B that otherwise feels like it was put on shuffle, and The Waterfall stalls the most during the usually incendiary guitar workouts. But this is Jim James accepting where he and My Morning Jacket are at the moment: a bit older, a bit broken, more skeptical but very much among the living.

[subinai]

I've been nervous about the pitchfork review. i usually don't like Cohen's reviews but am pleased with the score.

[MMJCOBRA]

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18775/reviews/4148947

My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall
Score 7/10
Label: ATO Release Date: 04/05/2015
PoorlySketchedChap by AARON LAVERY
April 30th, 2015

Ever since they first appeared around the turn of the century, My Morning Jacket have hung their hats on the lungs of Jim James. His huge voice, ably supported by levels of reverb only attainable in top secret government wind tunnels, was the essence that MMJ built their sound around, starting with enigmatic alt-country sketches before veering into classic Southern rock, radio-friendly funk and mid-tempo balladeering. But recently, that voice has spent more time in other pastures, with James seeming to prefer either his own company (his debut solo LP came out in 2013) or hanging with like-minded others, turning up on any number of other albums as a backing vocalist or playing a central role in projects such as the 'new' Basement Tapes Lost On The River. Musically, a lot of these projects have been more cohesive or just a lot more fun than MMJ's most recent efforts, with 2011's Circuital being okay at best.

So why has James gone back to the band for another LP, when he could be hanging out with Conor Oberst or Elvis Costello? Thankfully, The Waterfall shows that My Morning Jacket are more than just a backing band for their leader with the big lungs, and they're still able to sharpen his songs into something truly potent. There's something unashamedly big and bold in the music made by these particular five people, and it's there from the start of this album in 'Believe (Nobody Knows)', keyboards and building drums directing us towards a chorus that's as expansive and thrilling as the Californian countryside it was recorded in. There's also the slightly weird stuff here that MMJ do so well, in the shape of 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)'. On first listen it's simply four or five ideas spliced next to each other in some sort of prog-country soup, but after another couple of listens a strange wonky beauty becomes apparent, as the beautific slide guitar makes way for James's hypnotic refrain. Later on there's some synth action as well, just for good measure, and a monster guitar solo exactly as you'd expect, and then you'll find yourself singing it for weeks afterwards.

Next to these more immediate moments, there's the quiet reflection that was key to My Morning Jacket first capturing our attention, and thankfully on The Waterfall it tends to veer away from the stodgy MOR that has dragged down recent LPs; 'Get the Point' livened by some keening steel guitar and gentle finger-picking guitar.

As some of the song titles already mentioned suggest, James' lyrical inspiration is still very much the mystical, the quasi-religious, things going round in great big circles and brackets being needed in order to get the full message across, man. How much of this you can stomach will probably depend on how much My Morning Jacket you've come into contact with before – if you're adverse to any sort of cosmic mumbo-jumbo you'd be well advised to steer clear, but if you're not afraid of a man whose solo album was called Regions Of Light And Sound Of God, you'll be fine. The boisterous, almost-live feel of the production, and a leaning towards big, striding choruses and unashamedly anthemic moments means that things never get too ponderous. 'Big Decisions', for instance, sounds like it's being beamed in live from a festival headline slot, while 'Tropics (Erase Traces)' with its two-minute intro of spiralling guitars, is the kind of unashamed classic rock dads will tell you nobody makes any more.

Throughout it all, of course, is that voice, one moment shivering and fragile, the next cavernous and booming. Together with music that's both more imaginative and more straight-forward than on other recent efforts, it underlines why My Morning Jacket are still an important medium for Jim James's muse.

7 Aaron Lavery's Score

[AlwxanderD10]

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18775/reviews/4148947
Thankfully, The Waterfall shows that My Morning Jacket are more than just a backing band for their leader with the big lungs,

This dude obviously has never seen, watched or heard the Jacket live to think this.

[dookie shoot bandit]

I've been nervous about the pitchfork review. i usually don't like Cohen's reviews but am pleased with the score.

I definitely agree. It's weird... I rarely agree with their reviews but I can't not look at them either.

[rincon2]

Pitchfork reviews are usually pretentious gobbledygook priasing unlistenable crap, while ripping up great tunes. This was a very positive and easy read. It is the second one that I read, however, that states the guitar solos are the weakest part of the album(?) WTF? And the drownedinsound guy says the album sounds live? It is the least live sounding thing they have ever recorded.

[johnnYYac]

http://www.hitthefloor.com/music/indie-alt/morning-jacket-waterfall-album-review/

3.5/5 stars

My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall | Album Review

Posted by: Jenna Young April 30, 2015   

My Morning Jacket are a band with a highly unique sound, almost defying genre classification. Some of their songs can have quite a country feel yet, at other times, you can hear their classic rock influences coming through in the guitar work, or higher pitched vocals.

With their latest release, The Waterfall, they have done well to balance out the various sounds in their tracks, alternating between guitar and keyboard led, and switching out the more ethereal tracks for those heavier, more grounded sounds. A lot of the atmosphere on this record would be lost listening to it out of order. The rigidness of the structure fades towards the end, but this feels the same as fading out the end of a song, with the last few adhering to the lighter airy tones.

'Believe (Nobody Knows)' is a great lead into the album, it features the ethereal sounding vocal we've grown to love and expect from My Morning Jacket. The second track then throws us a curve-ball in the form of 'Compound Fracture', relying heavily on keyboard synth sounds. Who ordered a time machine back to the 80s? Because that's exactly where this track takes us.

From here the alternating tones really take shape, leading us through Dire Straits-esque guitar solos, an impressive vocal range and varying amounts of electronic sounds. The journey seems best summed up by track 6, 'Spring (Among The Living)' which finds the best balance.

It's from here that things soften. The biggest change in sound comes from the heavier guitar lead in 'Big Decisions' with the final two tracks nicely taking us out of this well planned album.

It really feels like this album is a culmination of everything the band have learned over the last 6 albums of their career, with its meticulous planning of the order and combination of different sounds. This is what is so good about this release. The varying qualities of the tracks keep the album interesting, but never differ so much that you are taken away from this as a cohesive collection of songs.

[justbcuzido]

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/30/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-review

The Guardian
Jon Dennis
4/5 Stars

There's a warm glow about The Waterfall that was missing from Circuital, My Morning Jacket's last album, in 2011. Bandleader Jim James and co-producer Tucker Martine have created a big canvas for MMJ's sun-blushed country rock, but have avoided any note of pomposity. The Kentucky band's tendency towards stadium-friendliness, evinced by the imploring Believe (Nobody Knows), is offset by moments of moving intimacy, such as Like a River, a haunting response to Stinson beach, the Californian beauty spot in which the album was recorded. And while it's possible to detect where My Morning Jacket are coming from – Get the Point recalls Nilsson's Everybody's Talkin', In Its Infancy (The Waterfall) has echoes of 70s soft-rock in its major-seventh chords, and the wailing guitars on Thin Line nod to Crazy Horse – they never become mired in self-conscious retro-stylings. James's voice is spellbindingly gorgeous, particularly on the closing track, Only Memories Remain, a late-night lament to lost youth.