The Waterfall - Album Reviews

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket: Renewal from The Waterfall
By Ryan Reed
May 5, 2015

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/05/my-morning-jacket-renewal-from-the-waterfall-1.html?utm_source=PMNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150505

"Whenever I see a waterfall in nature, I always have this weird impulse of wanting to stop it—like pausing a video," says Jim James, reflecting on the title of My Morning Jacket's seventh LP. "I've always loved the beauty of a giant waterfall, but standing in front of one is very overwhelming. There's nothing you can do about it."

There's something sinister about the weight of an unending stream, the relentlessness of its force. And the singer/songwriter, 37, spends most of his waking hours trying to slow down the one in his brain. "The waterfall, can it be stopped?" he sings on The Waterfall's sprawling pseudo-title cut, his golden yelp gliding over psychedelic guitar riffs and spiraling synths.

"We should all strive to constantly be reborn," James says. One of his favorite concepts is "the beginner's mind, of trying to be a child every day in some new way." So when his band isn't headlining festivals or selling out theaters, he's likely hiking as he hums a new melody to himself—or maybe sprawled out in the grass by his Louisville home, trying to glimpse the divine in the ordinary.

"I feel very overwhelmed with life a lot of the time, and I feel like there's nothing I can do to make my life more peaceful or get it all to slow down," he continues. "Then you try to find these ways to stop it all peacefully: meditating, going for a walk, all these things that involve nature and disconnecting in a certain way from the world—but in a good way. It's so healing for people. In the age of being trapped in cubicles with computers against our faces, getting into nature is the ultimate experience in life."

The Waterfall explores that struggle in-depth. Throughout its 10 winding songs, James sings about physical injury (space-pop banger "Compound Fracture"), romantic turmoil (country-tinged break-up ballad "Get the Point"), spiritual yearning (sunny sing-along "Believe (Nobody Knows)")—and emerges with a simple yet abstract answer: "Again I stop the waterfall by finally feeling / Again I stop the waterfall by just believing."

The album's central theme is renewal, starting over. James promises he's "done hibernating" on heavy epic "Spring (Among the Living)," and even at its darkest, the songs carry that sense of baptismal uplift. That sense of grandeur is nothing new for the quintet, a live act that transforms every venue into a church. But the stakes feel bigger than ever on The Waterfall.

James has always chased his own spacey intuition. He formed My Morning Jacket in 1998, idiosyncratically christening the band after discovering a discarded coat embroidered with the letters MMJ. Channeling the raw emotive power of Neil Young, he wrote Jacket's 1999 debut, That Tennessee Fire, and recorded most of his reverb-smothered vocals in an empty grain silo. That lonesome sound—James' voice echoing into the ether—is now almost mythic. But he's never been defined by that accidental trademark.

My Morning Jacket's critical breakthrough, 2005's Z, cemented their status as America's resident art-rock icons, as they blended Flying V hard-rock with Floydian psychedelia, spastic soul and symphonic bombast. ("America is a lot closer to getting its own Radiohead, and it isn't Wilco," David Fricke wrote in his Rolling Stone review.) It also cemented the band's line-up, with guitarist-saxophonist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster joining James, bassist Tom Blankenship and drummer Patrick Hallahan.

That quintet released two more albums, 2008's polarizing Evil Urges and 2011's measured Circuital—but they always earned their widest acclaim on-stage. The band's show-stopping 2008 Bonnaroo performance is now the stuff of legend: James and company crammed their set with rare tracks and left-field covers (from Erykah Badu to The Velvet Underground), stretching out close to four hours. In 2013, Rolling Stone named MMJ the planet's 10th-best live band.

Now, with The Waterfall, they've recaptured the boundless energy and wind-blown freedom of their stage show. And most of that spirit can be traced directly to the idyllic Panoramic House Studios at Stinson Beach, California, where the band recorded most of its songs—starting with a series of sessions in October 2013. Illuminated by the property's West coast glow, they worked on music during the day, cooked communal meals in the evenings and often walked the beach.

"It just had a really magical air, like being on another planet," James says. "It was like we were on the moon or something—it feels like you're so high up in the air, and everything there's so massive. You're right next to Muir Woods, and the trees are really massive. The beach is really massive, and the sunsets are massive. Everything is so broad and epic, and it just brought this surreal quality to the whole thing. It made us feel like we had our own colony on another planet or something. You can see the ocean from the studio, but you're up on this hillside. We were isolated with just our little group, but we had all of nature there with us. It was a really comforting place to be."

That paradise was temporarily marred when James, attempting to move an amplifier, suffered a herniated disc. He struggled to record, often tracking his vocal parts while laying on a studio couch—but after surgery and a two-month recovery process, the frontman regrouped with the band, winding up with more songs than he could even fit on two albums. (The next My Morning Jacket LP is planned for 2016, and James is also at work on a solo LP—a follow-up to his 2013 debut, Regions of Light and Sound of God.)

Some Waterfall material—like the barnburner "Big Decisions"—was recorded in Louisville, some at producer-engineer Tucker Martine's Flora studio in Portland. It was a fractured but fulfilling process: "Believe" was the very last song James wrote during the sessions, and it wound up being the crucial opener. "It's weird because it's like putting together a puzzle," James says of the sequencing. "For a while, 'Spring' was the first song, and that was back before 'Believe' existed. But ['Believe'] just felt like more of a clean slate beginning—it set a more positive tone. I originally picked 'Spring' because it has a real mysterious tone. It's a positive song, too, but it can be a bit confusing."

Unlike Circuital, which was recorded live to tape as a full-band, The Waterfall was partially constructed by James with computer technology—splicing random sections together into sonic tapestries.

"I would say 80 percent was stuff I wrote after Circuital and the solo record. But there are always a couple nuggets from five or 10 years ago on each record. Some ideas will poke their head out, and I'll find them again—sometimes accidentally, from my music collection being on random, one will pop up. That's kind of cool because there all these little ideas, and I might have one I really love from 10 years ago but didn't have any lyrics for it or know where it should go. Something will come up on random, and I'll think, 'Oh, I love that guitar part I wrote 10 years ago and didn't know what to do with,' and, 'Oh, weird, it's in the same key as this song.' For whatever reason, I feel like the universe guides you toward what you need to find."

As usual, most of the ideas originated from cell phone voice memo fragments, which James sent to the band as rough demos. This time around, instead of rehearsing the songs to death, he focused more on spontaneity—capturing a vibe in the moment, then figuring out the logistics later.

"We used to have a big rehearsal period and would leave and come back to record," he says. "I've done away with that because I think it's more fun to start doing it all at once and start recording. You get the best of both worlds. Some songs are way better in the early stages with less time put into them, and other songs are better with tons of time put into them. If we get a song early on, great, we've got it. And if it takes a long time, it takes a long time."

Soulful lullaby "Thin Line," the album's oldest track, began life "five or six years ago" but was shelved when James couldn't figure out how to finish it. Then Blankenship stumbled upon an additional riff on his computer, and the other pieces fell into place. Another great example is the proggy "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)," which veers from ominous synths to twangy folk to churning space-rock.

"I knew it should all go together, but I didn't know how," James says of the latter epic. "I was obsessed with this idea of a song being built from unrelated elements that become related. The different pieces of the song I wrote at different times, but they told me they should be connected. I had this idea that a song doesn't always have to be this thing you sit down and write with verses and choruses. We're at the crossroads of the world where we can still record live performances on tape, but you can take those performances and put them in the computer and do new things with them that you could never do on tape."

But for all its technical wizardry, The Waterfall never feels synthetic or piecemeal (as did the low-points of Evil Urges or Regions of Light). It's one man's 48-minute catharsis backed by hypnotic sonic color.

On "Believe," James sounds enraptured, belting over Koster's carnival-like keys as he encourages people to put their faith in something—anything—that helps push back the waterfall for another day.

"I just feel like everybody should be free to choose whatever it is they believe, and whatever feels right to you should be fine," he says. "There's been so much damage done in the name of religion throughout the course of humanity in a quest to figure out why we're here and what it all means and what we should believe. Should we believe what we've been taught to believe, or should we believe what we feel in our hearts to be true?

Everybody should be free to believe what they think they think is true without persecution—as long as they're not hurting anybody else or persecuting anybody else. If people could just let each other have that, the world would be a more peaceful place. But you get into organized religion as big business, and I don't think a lot of people think about that side of the coin. You think about a giant business that doesn't want to go out of business or lose its money and its foothold in the world. There's a lot of chaos and greed in religion because they want your soul and your wallet. There's been so much damage done. So that song is about believing what you want to believe because nobody really knows anything. Nobody's going to prove anything—at least they haven't yet."

"The waterfall, can it be stopped?"

Probably not. But James keeps searching—through meditation, through romantic love, through nature, through the cosmic warmth of My Morning Jacket.

"I have a lot of respect and love for the people who were in the band before," he says, surveying the current quintet's decade-long run. "But once it got to this line-up, that's where it wanted to be with its own force. This is definitely the band, and anything that changed from this line-up wouldn't be the band anymore."

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket's 'The Waterfall' Can Beat You Down Or Lift You Up

Listen here: www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html

The title of the new My Morning Jacket album, The Waterfall, is a metaphor for life beating you down. That's what frontman Jim James told Rolling Stone magazine. But in a gentler sense, the music itself is kind of like a waterfall — cascading notes, opaque layers of sound, and rippling arrangements that can bend or break the verse-chorus structure of traditional rock songs.

There's an appealing inscrutability to the music of My Morning Jacket that continues on The Waterfall. The band has always plied decades' worth of rock, country, soul and jammy psychedelia without being any one of those things. And even though James' enigmatic vocals have wound their way through seven albums with My Morning Jacket, the things he can do with his voice grow increasingly remarkable. In "Believe (Nobody Knows)," he tucks words into unexpected points, toying with his phrasing in a way that adds weight to the overarching philosophy of his lyrics.

Beneath My Morning Jacket's musical strata is a deeply ingrained spirituality, and on The Waterfall, it's directed toward the natural world. But even as he ponders the inevitability of nature, James points to the things we can control — the direction our lives will go, and maybe even our own happiness. After all, a waterfall can beat you down if you're standing right under it, but take a few steps back and it just might prove inspirational.

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket opens a vein and lets its rhythmic insides flow

http://www.avclub.com/review/my-morning-jacket-opens-vein-and-lets-its-rhythmic-218572

Grade: B

Jim James has become an unashamed sentimentalist. On My Morning Jacket's 2005 major-label release, Z, the band's frontman reared his thoughts upward with a spiritual tilt, molding them around godly references. Now, his focus is inward, musing on beliefs that pray for self-realization. As he sings to open The Waterfall, MMJ's seventh album, "Roll the dice, set sail the ship, and all the doors will open." Part bravado, part confessional, part purifying, The Waterfall is as open as oblivion, empathy, love, and misery.

What then does James believe these doors will open? Only everything—every little smudged feeling of his heart, head, and libido. In the past, James' own sprawling tone and frantic approach to genre-hopping have occasionally been reduced to a menagerie of indefinable quirks—easy to like, but sometimes difficult to internalize.

The Waterfall should shift the tide and change that. One quick skim of the track list reads like the stages of love, with songs like "Believe (Nobody Knows)," "Get The Point," "Thin Line," "Big Decisions," and "Only Memories Remain." The result achieves a balance that many long-term successful relationships reach, bands included: comfort in the familiar, but with an overwhelming desire for discovery and adventure.

As usual, My Morning Jacket sounds foreign on the first listen, but fluent by the fourth or fifth. The real magic is in James' voice or, rather, voices: "Compound Fracture" finds the vein between '60s-era Serge Gainsbourg and Marvin Gaye's falsetto, and modern synth meets "Heart Of Gold"'s Neil Young. Over a mounting riff, James offers one of his most urgent hooks. There's passion and hope as he cheekily sings, "Get as much as you can keep around" before "Like A River" flows in, rerouting placid jazzy acoustics with quick-click drum jolts and James' lacerated wail. A repeated word, "again," becomes a mantra summoning turmoil on top of heavy fuzz during "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)." The warbling jittery Led Zep-like guitar underlies the refrain while the song's parts duel until reaching a bottleneck stranded by reverb. As much as James has a reputation as a burly guitar hero, he brings a folky gravitas to the album's simpler standouts, giving songs like the tragic "Get The Point" a Marshall Tucker Band vintage hue. Album highlight "Spring (Among the Living)" slams in with slow swelling electric guitar, clanging through metallic chunks, wheeling listeners back and forth across livened rattling drums. A roar in James' throat is backed by a cluster of horns all swarming in support, like a safety net harnessing all the elements together.

Not all of the record's songs are as visceral. The tricky tonal tempos that underpin "Big Decisions" don't stand a chance next to scorched-earth anthems like "Tropics (Erase Traces)," with throngs of vocals so wounded they sound like James would rather push every last groan out of his body than absorb the feelings he's trying to vent. The decisive moment comes at the end of the record, with "Only Memories Remain" emerging like a figure in the fog: a bed thickly coated with '70s funk melodies, and vivid contours that sound soothing and firm. When the beat stretches its limbs, the track becomes the most content My Morning Jacket has sounded in a while.

Gripping and in waves, The Waterfall might not be a classic, but it still suggests that after nearly two decades fans don't know every side of My Morning Jacket. Luckily, they keep opening new doors for us to explore.

[johnnYYac]

http://diffuser.fm/album-review-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

As any familiar listener already knows, My Morning Jacket have long harbored an affinity for recording in environments that create a tangible sense of the music echoing through a physical space. As the Louisville, Ky.-based quintet's career has progressed, its albums have sounded less and less like the band was recorded live from inside a cavern and more like bandleader Jim James has learned to apply the sonic character of the room onto specific instruments. Along the way, My Morning Jacket have, to varying degrees, flirted with pop and then pulled back again; they've also incorporated touches of jazz and R&B. For their last album, 2011′s Circuital, Jones and company opted once again for a live-in-a-big-room approach, but the final mixes contained more texture than early efforts such as their 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire and its follow-up, 2001′s At Dawn.

This time around, for their seventh studio album The Waterfall, it's clear from the opening note that My Morning Jacket have learned to use space as just one element in their sonic palette, rather than as the single most prominent factor. James opens The Waterfall with the verses, "The answer floats on down the farthest shore of the mind / Roll the dice and sail the ship and all the doors will open" — essentially an announcement that he's employing water symbolism to illustrate the sense of uncertainty he felt while writing this new material. Musically, though, My Morning Jacket have never sounded so decisive. After going back and forth between gritty roots-psychedelia and pop polish, MMJ land smack in the middle with The Waterfall – arguably nailing the best qualities of both.

They also end up with the most varied album of their career. One of the most striking things about this new set of songs is how effortlessly they flow into one another without the album ever starting to sound complacent. From falsetto "woo-woo" hooks on "Compound Fracture" to grand, folky soft-rock on "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" to an acoustic campfire vibe of "Get the Point," The Waterfall captures several different shades of My Morning Jacket's trademark moodiness. Wisely, the band doesn't overplay its hand — the eerie, haunted glow of "Spring (Among the Living)" packs an especially dramatic whallop precisely because it stands out from the rest of the songs.

Especially encouraging is the fact that The Waterfall is actually the first of two albums that My Morning Jacket have in store. (The untitled companion offering is rumored for release later this year.) Where so many bands are well into their decline by their seventh record, My Morning Jacket buck that trend with The Waterfall, the latest example that some artists are capable of getting stronger and more creatively focused as they age.

[johnnYYac]

Free spirited psych rock that confirms My Morning Jacket to be the world's most credible jam band.

http://doublej.net.au/news/features/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

The only thing Jim James said about My Morning Jacket's seventh album The Waterfall when it was announced was that it was heavily inspired by the natural beauty of Northern California, where they recorded it.

"Stinson Beach was so psychedelic and focused," he said. "It was almost like we lived on our own little moon out there. It feels like you're up in the sky."

At the time, it didn't feel like a particularly important piece of information. But, after hearing the album, there's a good chance you're going to want to visit that magical place. This album sounds so free that it's intoxicating. And it's very addictive.

Listening to the epic opening chorus of 'Believe (Nobody Knows)', you might expect The Waterfall to be packed with inspirational power ballads. But, if there's one thing we should know about this great American rock band by now, it's that they're unpredictable.

While My Morning Jacket have always been a band with a collectively open mind, there's a free-spirited feel to this LP that makes it feel more psychedelic than past efforts.

Often you can't predict where these songs are going to lead. Drawn out jams like 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)' change musical form throughout, never really settling on a style, while the songs range in style from pastoral folk ('Like A River') to brilliant, catchy classic rock ('Big Decisions').

While the band is generally unpredictable, there's rarely anything groundbreaking about their sound. Such is the case on The Waterfall. Cues from late-'60s hippie psych rock abound, with touches of '90s indie rock and '70s West Coast pop-rock.

Tthere are more traditionally impressive guitar histrionics littered throughout the album, however it's the messy guitar solo on 'Spring (Among The Living)' that shows why Jim James and Carl Broemel are considered to be among the new school of guitar gods. Within the perfectly layered instrumentation there's room – nay, need – for something more chaotic and they serve it up right on cue.

Given the rest of the album's relative madness, you kind of expect seven-minute closing track 'Only Memories Remain' to veer off into some kind of aurally psychedelic wonderland. But it doesn't. All throughout it remains as it started; gentle, smooth and classy. Even when they're playing it straight the band is hard to predict.

With The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket are creeping ever closer to being a legitimate jam band. But, in contrast to the hacky-sack loving Deadhead set, this band has well-deserved indie cred. The blissed-out psych rock of The Waterfall suggests they're entitled to keep it.

[johnnYYac]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/music/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-ato-records.125141374

My Morning Jacket: The Waterfall (ATO Records)
Barry Didcock
Senior features writer
Wednesday 6 May 2015

THIS seventh studio album from the Kentucky five-piece was recorded mostly in an ocean-side studio in northern California and the setting has left its mark both in the constant allusions to water and nature, and in the musical spirits the songs often invoke - the melodic guitar rock of the Steve Miller Band, say, or the nostalgic, slightly mystical balladry of The Eagles.

There are lapses, particularly on the less experimental songs. The mostly acoustic Get The Point can't decide whether it wants to be Gentle On My Mind or the theme tune from Midnight Cowboy, and by the seventh minute of closing track Only Memories Remain, a soul-flavoured slow jam, you've more than got the point.

But it's when the band revs the throttle a little and sets off into the unknown that things become interesting. In Its Infancy (The Waterfall), the closest thing to a title track, blends grandiose themes with an operatic space-rock feel, while the almost-funky Compound Fracture is a smooth, seamless stomper in the mould of vintage Steely Dan. Holding it all together, and giving even the weaker songs some considerable heft, are the vocals and lyrics of singer-songwriter Jim James, which ooze both confidence and intellect.

Barry Didcock

[johnnYYac]

The Waterfall
3.5/5 stars

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-20150505

By Will Hermes May 5, 2015

The Kentucky band's seventh album is its happiest ever, with shades of prog and soul

My Morning Jacket are contrarians: Southern rockers who have no truck with Nashville, jam-nation heroes who don't really jam, classic-rock acolytes with indie-rock sensibilities. It's made them a genre of one, and a band that can tap the past without sounding like throwbacks. The Waterfall is their latest case in point — a fusion of synth-wrapped Eighties pop, prog-rock and Philly soul that still connects like a heady MMJ record.

A breakup LP that lands somewhere near acceptance, The Waterfall might be the band's sunniest, and trippiest, album. Bent notes stretch the fabric of these songs like flashbacks. "Tropics (Erase Traces)" opens on an arpeggio recalling Yes' signature "Roundabout" — it's orchestral folk rock with a surprisingly logical psych-metal denouement. "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" recalls the Band's "Chest Fever" alongside keytar-style squeals and digital ghost images; "Thin Line" conjures the Stylistics via Pink Floyd. Jim James' high tenor and easy, sublime falsetto remain the band's soul, in both senses. They're especially radiant on "Only Memories Remain," a meditative tune with a burbling guitar solo that feels like a Pacific sunset behind vapor-pen clouds, a perfect balance of the medicinal and the recreational.

Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

[johnnYYac]

http://www.louisville.com/content/album-review-my-morning-jacket-waterfall

Here we have it, finally after months of anticipation it has made it into our grubby little hands...My Morning Jacket's new album "The Waterfall."  Reportedly the first of two albums the band recorded last year in California.

It's a broad, sweeping, and often meandering album – that on the surface moves with less purpose than the band's previous albums; but then again that might very well be the purpose of this album.  As a collection of songs "The Waterfall" comes off like a band in search of something on a dark, star crusted beach.

It's atmospheric and textured but definitely feels somewhat less cohesive than the band's usual studio efforts.  They definitely capture an ethereal sprawl with spacey tracks like "Like a River" and "Only Memories Remain."  Jim James' voice is literally and figuratively throughout the album, there are certainly moments that feel like only slightly more subdued versions of his electronic, blip-heavy solo album 2013's "Regions of Light and Sound of God."

The album definitely gets a pulse toward the middle with more upbeat tracks "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" and "Spring (Among the Living)."  It's on these tracks that the band seems to all be moving in the same direction for a change, and just on the verge of an overall, old school rock-out.

As instrumentalists, keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel prove that they can meander about with the best of them; but their rhythm section featuring drummer Pat Hallahan bassist Tom Blankenship continues to be the band's ace-in-the-hole.  Their complex interplay and restrained veracity lays the subtle foundation on which every one of these songs is built.  However, the cornerstone of the band's music is Jim James and the songs themselves, because once the frills and players are stripped away, these songs still stand on their own volition.

[johnnYYac]

http://www.stereoboard.com/content/view/191344/9

3/5 stars

My Morning Jacket have never been afraid of starting over. Their style has always been fluid and subject to subtle shifts, reflecting the circumstances of Jim James' writing process and his influences, which have not always been the most comfortable of bedfellows. 'The Waterfall' is another twist in the tale and a record that, from its first burbling keys onwards, is closely tied with its title.

That title, James recently told Rolling Stone, is a "metaphor for how life is constantly beating you down". But 'The Waterfall' takes that starting point and looks to the future. It's about slates washed clean, personal growth and grudges dropped. The water motif is helpful like that. "Roll the dice, set sail the ship and all the doors will open on down the line," runs Believe (Nobody Knows).

The arrangements are a further string to that particular bow. Here we find My Morning Jacket in an expansive, almost prog frame of mind. There are no sharp edges to be found, with the band instead opting for broad swathes of synth and picked guitars alongside the obligatory classic rock licks and alt-country harmonies.

From this mix emerges a record that, despite a couple of truly great songs, spends a little too much time in the middle of the road or pottering around the periphery.

It's impossible not to be swept along by the rolling AOR of Compound Fracture or the rugged, supremely melodic Big Decisions, while Like A River neatly encapsulates its name with brisk, dancing guitars.

But in In Its Infancy or Tropics we see the other side of the piece. Here My Morning Jacket are less focused and happier to indulge themselves, with the net result being some lusty psych-jams that struggle to hold interest. By no means are they disasters, but they quite simply don't pack the same punch as the record's finest moments.

James' thematic musings on life's curveballs and how to negotiate them - bolstered by knowledge of the idyllic recording setting in Stinson Beach and his subsequent back problems - serve as an anchor to prevent any lasting damage, leaving My Morning Jacket with another record to thrill, soothe and, at times, frustrate.

[johnnYYac]

The Waterfall continues My Morning Jacket's reign as a Grateful Dead for the 21st century.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/192916-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall
(ATO / Capitol)
US: 5 May 2015

Blessed be the band or film that forges a distinct culture amongst its fans. Phrases, dates, and places gain their own special significance and meaning amongst Beatlemaniacs, Potterheads, Trekkies, Achievers, and Little Monsters. William Shatner may have told a room full of Trekkies to "get a life", but at least the impassioned are enthusiastic about something, even if they are often characterized as obsessed, deviant, and hysterical.

My Morning Jacket's die-hard enthusiasts seem to be modern day Deadheads, with downloading swapped in the place of tape trading. In turn, these guys love their fans so much that they issued a self-hypnosis series through their fan club, Roll Call, "to help each individual fan reach a state of emotional bliss" with the assistance of an algorithm to sense listeners' temperature and emotional climate, carving pieces of music to "provide a vehicle for the listener to enter a new gateway of self-exploration and understanding based on their current state of mind at the time". In the past, the band has also let fans choose opening songs and encores as part of their "Spontaneous Curation" Series.

And so it is that My Morning Jacket seem firmly fixed in the public's mind not just as My Morning Straightjacket on American Dad, but also as a 21st century Grateful Dead. The music may not be all that similar to the Dead, and My Morning Jacket are a bigger commercial draw, but they do share a similar free-wheeling attitude and approach.

Although My Morning Jacket's new album The Waterfall was so keenly anticipated that its early leak made headline news, you never know what you're going to get with this band until you play the record. Every album sounds different, albeit there's usually some form of psychedelic freak-out lurking around the corner. The levitating "Believe (Nobody Knows)" opens the album and builds from a whirl and tinkle to screeching electric guitar, reminding us, generally speaking and also specifically to this band, that things can be unpredictable. In an optimistic fashion, James does not mention the only inevitabilities of death and taxes, but rather focuses on the positive.

The title of "Compound Fracture" sounds dismal, but it turns out to be close to Fleetwood Mac-esque pop. This is perhaps surprising given the image of My Morning Jacket, but the track goes to show that it's easy to be wrong-footed by preconceptions. Things turn more serious with a foray into nature through the mysticism of "Like a River", as James pushes his voice to the top of its register to soak the track in gorgeous, floaty falsetto. The tune develops a pulsating, rhythmic foundation which pulls it into the aptly titled "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)". This one also takes some time to build but is worth the patience required as again it subverts into smooth and catchy pop. James sings that he can stop the waterfall through a variety of methods which include thinking, breathing, feeling, and believing. It all may sound unlikely, but the song is transformative, with the sheen of late Rilo Kiley.

My Morning Jacket are not always the most accessible of groups, but there are some cuts easier to immediately appreciate than others. "Get the Point" is closest to some of James' contributions to the Basement Tapes project Lost on the River, and is brutally direct in admitting that the thrill of a romance has gone. After the death of this relationship, "Spring (Among the Living)" positively bristles with energy, opening with a primal howl of joy looking forward to the changes ahead. The band is tight, with the drumming and laser-like guitar truly shining. "Thin Line" is another highlight, like an awesome would-be theme to a '70s theme show on acid, with Pink Floyd guitar lines and soul vocals. At times, the music wigs out into difficult complexity, but this is what is in part needed to keep our attention these days.

The Waterfall naturally loses velocity to finish in a grand circular motion; the almost mainstream up-tempo rock of "Big Decision" marks the beginning of the end, followed by the cosmic noodle of "Tropics (Ease Traces)" and the laid-back soul groove of "Only Memories Remain". James describes the record as "the sound of the page turning", and as My Morning Jacket repeatedly prove here, all we can count on is change. New listeners may be disconcerted by the record's wide stylistic scope, but there are many worthy moments which can be latched on to if you stick with it, grabbing one of those hooks that seemingly appears out of nowhere. For the devotees, the deluxe version has five extra tracks, made up of three additional songs, a remix and a demo.

The Waterfall

Rating: 7/10 stars

[johnnYYac]

As was true of 2011's "Circuital," My Morning Jacket's "The Waterfall" is largely a feel-good album, with Jim James acting as de facto spiritual guru.

http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2015/05/05/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-review/103411/

Like English teachers, ministers and uncles, the best motivational speakers are reformed heathens. Relating is half the battle, so words of wisdom resonate clearer when they come from someone who's been to the other side and back.

On stage in a Grizzly Adams beard and Hispanic superhero cape, My Morning Jacket lead singer Jim James has preached to the band's faithful for nigh on two decades now. When he warns about how a life spent in bars slips away chillingly fast, or the importance of growing past your youthful indulgences, you can't help but believe it's from a place of knowing. The band even puts on a retreat of sorts, an all-inclusive mini-festival in Mexico called One Big Holiday, where fans can, in the band's words, get it out of their system.

So it's not unexpected that so much of the energy of the band's latest effort, "The Waterfall," is dedicated to sweeping inspirational flourishes. As was true of 2011's "Circuital," it's largely a feel-good album, with James acting as de facto spiritual guru. "Time to roll, the answer floats on down the farthest shore / Of the mind," he hums at album's open as if perched on our collective shoulder on "Believe (Nobody Knows)." As is typical for a My Morning Jacket album, it takes no time for the song to hit a roof-cracking arena rock swell to match the uplifting sentiment.

The crux of the lesson plan here is the power of the mind, as is outlined on the prog-rocking eponymous track, "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)." The waterfall in question is the torrent of obligations and fears that batter us in our lives, which James proclaims can be stopped "by just believing." The constant proselytizing can get grating fast, as if the album could be subtitled "My Morning Jacket's Take Back Your Life In Ten Easy Songs!" But as to put the onus back on the listener, James reminds us on "Big Decisions" how ridiculous it is to make a CD your life coach: "What do you want me to do? / Make all the big decisions for you?" Mixed messages abound.

Casting aside the motivational concept album of "The Waterfall," My Morning Jacket are typically bankable when it comes to breaking off massive alt-rock riffs. They've been toting "Compound Fracture" to their promotional performances, and it shines in its own Miami Vice radio way. But save for it and and "Believe," the highlights here are found in down-tempo respites. "Get The Point" deals largely in cliches, but they're strung together gorgeously by a welcome appearance from James' acoustic picking prowess. "Only Memories Remain" gives the band a slow soul-burner to shuffle into their setlists, sounding as they are wont to do like a wedding band losing sight of the evening for the tabs that the groomsman slipped in their drinks.

These sprawling offerings are what make My Morning Jacket such a treasured outfit in the overlapping world of arena rock and jam band they inhabit. "The Waterfall" doesn't have as many of these moments as the band's last effort, instead favoring a generic 80's rock sound that can go south pretty damn quick, especially when paired with James' penchant for garden variety revelations ("Spring (Among The Living)" in particular). But at this point in the band's career, it's well known that a My Morning Jacket album is as capable of campy new age rock as it is riveting prog ballads. On "The Waterfall," they're usually one in the same.

[johnnYYac]

Review: My Morning Jacket offers great ride on 'The Waterfall' (Grade: A)

BY LUCAS PAULEY lpauley@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5576 @LucasJayPauley

http://www.saukvalley.com/2015/05/05/review-my-morning-jacket-offers-great-ride-on-the-waterfall-grade-a/ahh7kvf/

My Morning Jacket, one of the more consistent American rock bands of the past 15 years, has done it again.

The band's latest album, "The Waterfall," is great. One of the best of the year so far, actually.

Never afraid to dabble in different genres – with feet tapping back and forth between psychedelic rock and southern-rock-infused country – the band has always been enjoyable, but sometimes hard to fully embrace.

On "The Waterfall," MMJ finds a way to venture to different heights without losing sight of where they launched.

The album opens with the extremely catchy "Believe (Nobody Knows)," perfectly suited for huge stages, like the one the band will play on June 13 at Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee.

Singer-songwriter Jim James delivers some of his best hooks yet in "Big Decisions," and "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)."

The frontman's voice can range from a gruff, nasally lower tone, to an impressive, and sometimes bone-chilling, falsetto.

The instrumentation on the album keeps things interesting. From the acoustic tones of "Get The Point" and "Like A River," to the classic rock-inspired electric guitars on "Compound Fracture" and "Thin Line," the band's musicianship is constantly grabbing your attention.

The band closes with its two best tracks, "Tropics (Erase Traces)," and the 7-minute finale "Only Memories Remain."

Seven minutes? Yeah, but trust me.

With MMJ – and many genre-hopping bands with loose song structures – it's all about the melodies. A great melody can hold it all together.

The band makes a living on "wait for it ... wait for it .... BAM." And, few times have they done it better than on "The Waterfall."

[CC]

MY MORNING JACKET UNLEASHES THE WATERFALL
by John Buhler / The Garbage Time
four out of five stars
http://www.thegarbagetime.com/morning-jacket-unleashes-waterfall/

It's my great pleasure to introduce the first of hopefully many great album reviews here at The Garbage Time.  One of my favorite bands My Morning Jacket released their seventh studio album, The Waterfall, Tuesday morning.  The alternative-country quintet from Louisville, Kentucky has bounced back from two mildly satisfactory albums to produce something truly great.  While The Waterfall doesn't eclipse 2005's Z, (nothing ever will, as it's one of the best albums ever recorded) My Morning Jacket does their best to recapture that magic on album number seven.

1. Believe (Nobody Knows)

Over the year's My Morning Jacket has always been able to deliver a great opening track on each of their studio albums.  The use of tape manipulation and musique concrète caught me by complete surprise immediately out of the gate on Believe (Nobody Knows).  Keyboardist Bo Koster's early statement as a major contributor in the album's overall sound begins with an uplifting, hypnotic piano riff.  The chorus explodes with loud guitar chords from lead singer/rhythm guitarist Jim James.  Lead guitarist Carl Broemel plays more notes on this track alone than he did on the entire record Circuital, which is outstanding as MMJ are at their best when James and Broemel play off each other as guitarists.  If you listen closely, you can hear the rhythm section of bassist 'Two-Tone' Tommy Blankenship and the most underrated drummer in rock n' roll Patrick Hallahan continue to work their magic.  I can't wait to hear this song live.  Musically it's incredible.  My only concern is if James can attack the vocals with the same ferocity as he does with 'Gideon' when this song goes live.

2. Compound Fracture

I look at Compound Fracture as MMJ taking a Mulligan on Evil Urges' 'Highly Suspicious' and doing a better job of emulating Prince and the Revolution.  "Compound fracture, gotta set the bone" is a better lyric than "Peanut butter pudding surprise".  There's definitely a Led Zeppelin influence in this song as it reminds me of 'All My Love'.  Lyrically this song draws influence from Jim James' injury falling off the stage last tour.  Just when the song starts to get too repetitive, Hallahan changes the beat marvelously.  I can see the band extending the song live as Koster gets funky with the Hammond Organ like he's the late Ray Manzarek of The Doors.  There's a really cool Miami Jungle Version of Compound Fracture in the bonus tracks.  I imagine this is more of what the song will sound like live.  Seriously, My Morning Jacket needs to make Okonokos Part Deux on tour for this album.

3. Like a River

Usually I'm not the biggest fan of when Jim James decides to go folky on an MMJ record, because that means very little Patrick Hallahan on that particular song.  'Like a River' has this frenetic picking pattern that I thoroughly enjoy as the song gradually builds.  After a few listens, it almost of like an It Still Moves' 'Golden' and Circuital's 'Holdin' On To Black Metal' sonic fusion if that makes any sense.  What really stands out to me on the third track of The Waterfall is how engulfing it is in the last-minute and a half, swallowing me whole in a wall of sound.  It's continuing to grow on me.  Though it's not my favorite type of My Morning Jacket song, I believe many fans will enjoy this track.

4. In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)

The title track is also the best track on the record.  It sounds like a more complex song than The Who could ever play for Pete Townshend. I didn't think it was possible that we would hear the Wurlizter again from the Louisville quintet as it has become synonymous with the octaves of Circuital's 'Victory Dance'.  Koster does more than octaves on this Wurly riff.  Halfway through the song, it's like Black Sabbath took over.  Is Tony Iommi making a guest appearance on this track?  The syncopated power chords of James and the driving drumming of Hallahan give Broemel space to explore the middle of the fret board.  Prove me wrong, but I think In Its Infancy will prove problematic in live shows as it's a bit all over the place.  Not really in a bad way, but kind of how it was hard for your high school band to recreate Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' from your Mom's basement.

5. Get the Point

I love this song.  It has all the best features of an MMJ ballad.  From Hallahan's persistent brushstrokes on the snare to Broemel's excellent use of the steel guitar to James' angelic voice.  Great lyrics for a beautiful song about a relationship losing its excitement.  It's not quite 'Golden', but for a ballad in the middle of the record it certainly keeps you interested.  On vinyl the is the last track on side two and it does a great job transitioning to the latter half of The Waterfall.

6. Spring (Among the Living)

If you like 'Victory Dance' or 'Wordless Chorus', Spring (Among the Living) is right up your alley.  Lyrically this song is all about rebirth and getting back to feeling alive again.  Each time I listen to it, I pick up on something new that I hadn't heard before.  I'm on listen twenty-four.  There are three distinct parts to this track that stand out to me:  Patrick Hallahan's versatility on the skins, Broemel's Dondante-like guitar soloing, and the Rubber Soul vibe I got each time I listened to this track.  Spring, like the season itself, is bursting with controlled chaos.  I cannot wait to see the boys recreate this one live!

7. Thin Line

This one is straight out of the sixties.  It's like the Kentucky boys were listening to a lot of Pet Sounds before recording this tune.  The guitar solo cuts through the song kind of like how Brian May of Queen used to do on a Freddie Mercury piano ballad.  It's a challenge for me to hear what James is singing as the music is so mesmerizing.  All I'm getting is that 'It's a thin line between lovin' and wasting our time".  That's good enough for me.  This might be a deeper cut on the album but it's still very much enjoyable to listen to.

8. Big Decisions

Big Decisions is the lead single off The Waterfall.  It's a good choice by the band as it illustrates the entire group's talents in a pop-sensible way.  It commands your attention in the way that Z's 'What A Wonderful Man' does.  I haven't heard this amount of strings on an MMJ song since 'Gideon', but that's a good thing.  The call and response efforts by Broemel and Koster give this song great sonic depth.  The Fleet Foxes sounding song probably kicks some serious tail live, too.  My only issue is that the bridge drags on too long.  Then again, it's a bridge and that's what they tend to do.  Big Decisions was a good choice for a lead single.

9. Tropics (Erase Traces)

Tropics (Erase Traces) continues the lovely trend of intricate guitar melodies found on The Waterfall.  Lyrically, it's all about getting away from yourself on an out-of-body experience in a far away land.  Hallahan's fills and driving beat gives this song structure that's craving the great escape.  Seriously, just about every song on The Waterfall can find its way into a live set.  The muffled electric guitar glissando increases in frequency until it happens at every bar during another snarly solo.  Tropics might be this record's version of 'Off The Record'.  It's just that good and it scares me a bit.

10. Only Memories Remain

The final track on The Waterfall is also the longest at over seven minutes in length.  This holds true with every MMJ record.  This could easily be a Fleetwood Mac hit.  Vocally James reminds me of Christine McVie.  It's like the bizarro version of Dondante, with much brighter chords and lyrical content.  The guitar work on this record is impressive from start to finish.  While Only Memories Remain can't eclipse Z's Dondante as my favorite last track by My Morning Jacket, I'm all for letting it grow on me.

Overall, this is a great record from the Louisville, Kentucky quintet.  Lyrically I think it's MMJ's deepest record to date.  Much of that has to do with drawing inspiration from Jim James' fall from stage on the Circuital Tour.  The band continued to embrace the reverb and ambient recording tactics of Circuital but with much better songs.  If there's filler on this record, there might be just a song or two.

All members of the band shined on this record.  Hallahan continues to impress behind the drum kit.  Blankenship is as smooth as ever with his bass lines.  Expect them to pop more in live shows.  They always do.  Koster comes to the forefront on a few songs with his exploration of the keyboard.  Broemel gets back to doing what he does best, playing great lead guitar and shimmering with that country-sounding steel guitar of his.  Perhaps most importantly, Jim James should feel immense pride with this record.  It's not Z but I believe that it has the staying power of 2003's It Still Moves.  From MMJ, that's a good as you can hope for.  I'll give their seventh album, The Waterfall, four out of five stars.

[johnnYYac]

"The Waterfall" (Deluxe) – My Morning Jacket [Official Full Album Stream + Zumic Review]

http://zumic.com/music-videos/174793/the-waterfall-deluxe-my-morning-jacket-official-full-album-stream-zumic-review/

ZUMIC RATING: 4.5/5 stars

My Morning Jacket are one of the bands that have essentially led the American rock scene into the 21st century. Balancing an organic sound rooted in tradition with a consistent effort to be creative, the group from Louisville has earned their reputation as one of the best live bands on the planet. On their 2015 album, The Waterfall, they continue to churn out a heady brew of sonic gravy and epic poetry.

Every My Morning Jacket album seems to go hand-in-hand with a concept, even if that concept is just capturing the band at a particular stage of growth in their creative development and experimentation. Having said that, The Waterfall is the closest thing to a true concept album that the band has ever made.

At the front and center of the My Morning Jacket maelstrom is Jim James. The band's dynamic lead singer and guitarist has a few special qualities as a musician, a songwriter, and a producer. He and the band have a unique sound, reflecting modern indie rock while staying true to the soulful twang of classic rock and country.

Behind James, the band of Patrick Hallahan (drums), 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship (bass), Carl Broemel (guitars, pedal steel, sax, vocals), and Bo Koster (keys) are a sturdy and versatile group that can pivot on a dime from hard rock to folk ballads to slow electro-grooves to reggae.

The Waterfall is symbolic of so many things. Looking at the album cover, you get a sense of the natural beauty. You get a sense of the power, but also peace and serenity. There's constant movement and progression. These things certainly apply to the album, but behind the surface there's a deeper and more personal meaning to the concept.

Jim James told Rolling Stone's Patrick Doyle, The Waterfall "is a metaphor for how life is constantly beating you down, and you really have to take time to stop it and get through." Throughout the album, the lyricism details a dark cycle of living through indecision and failed relationships.

James admitted to Rolling Stone that this was based on his real life experience. It's important to note that James had health issues during the creative process, requiring surgery for a herniated disc in his back. While going through the healing process, he co-produced the album with the highly esteemed Tucker Martine.

In a Rolling Stone article by Jason Newman, James broke down his writing style: "I like to joke if aliens came down and found my lyrics and had to come up with one overarching theme of what I was going for, they'd be like, 'This dude is really fuckin' confused.' Confusion is still my primary theme."

Without reading and dissecting the lyrics and interviews, you probably wouldn't realize that the album told such a sad story. That is because it sounds so damn good!

"Believe (Nobody Knows)" is an upbeat and exciting opening, setting up the dark philosophical journey. The band achieves liftoff during "Compound Fracture," combining bombastic prog-rock with disco-era R&B in an interesting way. Early in the song, it feels like the band might have gone off the rails on their way to cheesy territory, but they come together and the result is actually somewhat spellbinding.

"In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" is a classic MMJ jam. You can hear shades of MMJ's 2003 hit "One Big Holiday" in the hi-hat intro before an electro-church keyboard breakdown takes the album to a higher level. Layers of grooves dance around each other, as crushing guitar and funky spaceship keys push the creative envelope. My Morning Jacket prove they can still make awesomely weird rock records with a strong hook.

"Big Decisions" is another MMJ instant classic. This is the kind of song that should be a radio hit, with its steady groove and pleasant vocals. The pedal steel guitar is really nice, falling somewhere between Nashville Opry and Hawaiian slack-key.

"Spring (Among The Living)" is a soaring epic rocker. If you're familiar with the MMJ bear motif, you'll get a chuckle out of the fact they wrote a song explicitly about coming out of hibernation.

"Like A River" and "Get The Point" show James' brand of folk-rock-meets-chamber-pop, evoking an easy comparison to Paul McCartney's work on Magical Mystery Tour and as a solo artist.

The bonus tracks on the deluxe version of the album include two songs that didn't make the LP ("Hillside Song" and "I Can't Wait") and two alternate recordings of songs that did make the LP ("Compound Fracture" and "Only Memories Remain"). The songs that didn't make it are solid tunes, but you can see why they were cut. The alternate versions show some insight to the band's songwriting and recording process, and "Compound Fracture" (Miami Jungle Version) is a particularly good listen.

Compared to My Morning Jacket's previous album, Circuital, released in 2011, The Waterfall may be a bit of a letdown. James' writing was at an emotional high point on Circuital, turning out joyous songs like "Victory Dance" and "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)."

Even when he sings about devastation and depression, Jim James' voice and guitar shines as he fights against the flow to achieve the rarified air of glorious sound. This is the type of LP that audiophiles and vinyl record collectors will definitely want to check out because of the great sound quality. There are a few weak moments that feel a little uninspired, and the lyrics openly discuss that struggle. Even so, this is an excellent album. There's no denying that My Morning Jacket are a force to be reckoned with, making life-affirming music through good times and bad.

[johnnYYac]

Album review: My Morning Jacket
Singer focuses inward on enchanting new album

http://www.bendbulletin.com/entertainment/music/3130857-151/album-review-my-morning-jacket#

Published May 8, 2015 at 12:06AM
My Morning Jacket
"THE WATERFALL"
ATO Records/Capital Records

The hum of an everyday mysticism has always been part of the deal for My Morning Jacket, but it resonates louder than usual on "The Waterfall." Don't mistake it for a problem. All those lyrics about openness, about flow, about mind-body dualism — they suit this band perfectly, along with cavernous reverb and heavy-foot midrange tempos.

That much becomes clear on the album's curtain-raiser, "Believe (Nobody Knows)," whose title effectively spoils the plot. "Believe," Jim James urges four times in the chorus, ascending halfway up a major scale. Then, with feeling, "Nobody knows!" Is that an admission? A reassurance? It doesn't matter; James is saying, as succinctly as he can, that the absence of proof lays the bedrock for belief.

"The Waterfall" is My Morning Jacket's seventh studio album, and a consolidation of its strengths, a hunk of substantiation for a believing fan base. Like the band's 2011 album, "Circuital," which was a self-conscious return to form after some clanky experiments, this one was produced by James with engineer Tucker Martine.

The band long ago set the hazy but four-square dimensions of its style. Some of these tracks, like "Compound Fracture," evoke 1970s commercial rock, complete with blended "oohs." (Among the backup singers are Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards.) Other tracks, like "Spring (Among the Living)," which gravely hails the changing of the seasons, feel designed for maximum liftoff on big stages.

ON TOUR: Sept. 30 — Keller Auditorium, Portland; www.mymorningjacket.com.

— Nate Chinen,
New York Times

[johnnYYac]

 My Morning Jacket sounds oddly bored with new album
Waterloo Region Record
By Michael Barclay

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/5607400-my-morning-jacket-sounds-oddly-bored-with-new-album/

My Morning Jacket
"The Waterfall" (Universal)

Undeniably one of the greatest American rock bands of the last 15 years, My Morning Jacket delights in confounding. There have been plenty of head-scratching moments for fans, and thankfully for all of us they're usually contained to every second album. Following the every-second-album rule, MMJ have a phenomenal discography: "At Dawn," "Z," "Circuital." Beyond that, you'd only ever need the 2006 live document "Okonokos" and maybe a few other stray tracks. (And Jim James's stunning 2013 solo album.)

But now that we've heard all of MMJ's greatest tricks — the soaring majesty of James's voice, the epic guitar jams, the detours into new wave, reggae, and odes to black metal, all wrapped up in the haunting, reverb-drenched psychedelic folk-rock that started it all off in the first place — what can MMJ do in 2015 to impress us? Maybe they can start by impressing themselves.

For such a creative, curious band, MMJ sound oddly bored here. With precious few exceptions, there's an audible lethargy here, even on the ostensibly uptempo tracks. From the vocal harmonies to the guitar grooves to the stadium-rock drums, so much of "The Waterfall" sounds like '70s rock clichés that this band successfully avoided, or subverted, in the past. The only songs here I ever want to hear again are the ones that are the most stripped down, the ones that might as well by Jim James solo tracks, the ones where the power and glory of his band aren't even in play.

That doesn't bode well — but apparently the followup album is already finished and scheduled to come out in the next 12 months. Judging by history, they'll bounce right back. Let's hope so.

Download: "Get the Point," "Compound Fracture," "Only Memories Remain"

[bikemail]

My Morning Jacket sounds oddly bored with new album
Waterloo Region Record
By Michael Barclay

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/5607400-my-morning-jacket-sounds-oddly-bored-with-new-album/

Wow, this is infruriating in so many ways.

[justbcuzido]

My Morning Jacket sounds oddly bored with new album
Waterloo Region Record
By Michael Barclay

http://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/5607400-my-morning-jacket-sounds-oddly-bored-with-new-album/

My Morning Jacket
"The Waterfall" (Universal)

Undeniably one of the greatest American rock bands of the last 15 years, My Morning Jacket delights in confounding. There have been plenty of head-scratching moments for fans, and thankfully for all of us they're usually contained to every second album. Following the every-second-album rule, MMJ have a phenomenal discography: "At Dawn," "Z," "Circuital." Beyond that, you'd only ever need the 2006 live document "Okonokos" and maybe a few other stray tracks. (And Jim James's stunning 2013 solo album.)

But now that we've heard all of MMJ's greatest tricks — the soaring majesty of James's voice, the epic guitar jams, the detours into new wave, reggae, and odes to black metal, all wrapped up in the haunting, reverb-drenched psychedelic folk-rock that started it all off in the first place — what can MMJ do in 2015 to impress us? Maybe they can start by impressing themselves.

For such a creative, curious band, MMJ sound oddly bored here. With precious few exceptions, there's an audible lethargy here, even on the ostensibly uptempo tracks. From the vocal harmonies to the guitar grooves to the stadium-rock drums, so much of "The Waterfall" sounds like '70s rock clichés that this band successfully avoided, or subverted, in the past. The only songs here I ever want to hear again are the ones that are the most stripped down, the ones that might as well by Jim James solo tracks, the ones where the power and glory of his band aren't even in play.

That doesn't bode well — but apparently the followup album is already finished and scheduled to come out in the next 12 months. Judging by history, they'll bounce right back. Let's hope so.

Download: "Get the Point," "Compound Fracture," "Only Memories Remain"

Does this ass clown even Jacket? At Dawn, Z Circuital the only good albums... Does he even know ISM?

[johnnYYac]

I knew that would stir up some discussion... 

[Angelo]

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but good lord this is crazy speak. I've seriously never heard anyone that likes MMJ, dismiss ISM. No one.