Sydney Morning Herald - Z

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/12/12/1134235982608.html#

My Morning Jacket: Z
December 12, 2005

My Morning Jacket's Z

(Sony BMG)

This is as if Kentucky's My Morning Jacket, having tried on several musical outfits on their previous albums - Neil Young; Lynyrd Skynryd, for starters - have decided their wardrobe can and will contain something of everything. I think near neighbour Dolly Parton would call it a coat of many colours and like Ms Parton's home-made outfit, Z defies the cheap naysayers.

It should be messy. After all, there's old school southern rock - except on new drugs - with occasional stabs of electronica; there are splashes of Mercury Rev-like pastoral pyschedelia and early R.E.M. obliqueness.

There are even bits of reggae and moments of carnival tunes alongside tracks such as Lay Low, which hovers tantalisingly between Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and Knot Comes Loose, with its Neil Young throwbacks. And this is before getting to the religious references and mentions of babies in blenders.

This may be the band's masterstroke if not masterpiece, an ambitious foray into sound and song that makes its own world exist.