Daily Cardinal - Madison, WI

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My Morning Jacket will not cause 'Zzzs'
Ryan Ausloos
Thursday, November 3, 2005
 
Photo Courtesy Badman

Not only is the band not wearing a Morning Jacket, they're not wearing jackets at all. Hypocrites!  

My Morning Jacket's latest release Z marks a change in form for the band. Previous albums like At Dawn and It Still Moves, while excellent albums, had the feeling of a loose collection of songs. Z, at just over half the length of those albums, has a tighter, more cohesive feel, despite experimenting with several different styles of music throughout the album.

The album starts off strong with "Wordless Chorus," a number that would not feel out of place on Radiohead's Kid A. Bonus points to the band for their honesty—the chorus really does not have any words in it, aside from a series of coordinated "oohs" and "aahs."

"Gideon," one of the strongest tracks on the album, sounds as though it was plucked right off The Joshua Tree, with singer Jim James' voice soaring like Bono's, while pleading, "Listen, listen."

The middle part of the album is where the band really starts to cut loose. Track four, "What a Wonderful Man," shrugs off the heavy production of much of the album for a good old-fashioned rock number. The lead single "Off the Record" is, fittingly, the most overtly pop number on the album, with a Ventures-like guitar riff and Caribbean-style beat forming the song's backbone. This gives the track a feel similar to Blondie's "The Tide is High" or Led Zeppelin's "D'yer mak'er."

"Into the Woods" is a delightfully weird number. Its waltzing melody would not sound out of place on a carousel—if it were not for the bizarre and sometimes racy lyrics. In "Woods," James states "A kitten on fire. A baby in a blender / Both sound as sweet as a night of surrender" and "A good shower head and my right hand / the two best lovers that I ever had."

The album closes strongly with two ballads. Track nine, "Knot Comes Loose" is a beautiful love song with the lyrics, "Deep in my heart, that's where the knot comes loose / Deep in my heart, that's where I will remember you."

The album would have done well to close with "Knot," but the band does one better with "Dondante." This atmospheric track features eerie vocals about the death of a loved one. Before erupting into jazz-fused instrumentation, the album closes with the words, "Now I'm learning, learning that this will pass." It is a perfect close to an emotional last half of the album.

Fans of My Morning Jacket's earlier work may at first be put off by this album's experimental nature. While it is still pop, it feels less accessible than their previous work, which was more straight-up alt country. If given a chance, however, Z reveals itself to be a great musical journey—the work of a band in top form.