MTV Evil Urges review/interview

[Colindarko]

hmmm - i can't tell if the guy likes the record or not - but jim's description is great.


http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1584403/20080328/my_morning_jacket.jhtml

[dragonboy]

"You come up out of this valley & get rocked, you get get rocked hard" Carl & Patrick are priceless @ that moment in the interview  ;D

Cheers for posting!

[lisaskye]

I love to see them all relaxed.
thanks for the find....
Patrick said that it almost broke up the band!! oh noooooo  :'(

I can not wait!!!!!  

Love Dawg,  

Lisa

[cmccubbin@work]

hmmm - i can't tell if the guy likes the record or not - but jim's description is great.


http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1584403/20080328/my_morning_jacket.jhtml

can someone pleaes post the contents of the article?

my work won't let me get on mtv.com!  

[lisaskye]

My Morning Jacket's Jim James Urges Fans To Come Along On Upcoming Album's Wild Ride

Frontman calls Evil Urges, due June 10, 'the hardest record we've ever made.'

By Christopher Smith

Evil Urges is surely going to blow minds. The question is, though, for better or for worse?

Due June 10 on ATO Records, Urges is the fifth album from the ever-evolving Louisville, Kentucky, act My Morning Jacket, and it finds them continuing down the same path they started on with their critically acclaimed 2005 record, Z.

"I feel like Z is the perfect bridge from what we were gradually doing before — and Z to [Evil Urges] is the perfect bridge between everything. ... On the first listen, there's a lot of variety in a lot of different places, but I think after repeated listens, hopefully the listener would understand the similarities more than the differences," frontman Jim James told MTV News.

And he's not kidding when he talks about the "variety" found on this record.

The first three tracks will immediately stun fans of MMJ with heavy funk beats and synths galore. The title track and "Highly Suspicious" also find James singing in his rarely heard super-high falsetto, all too reminiscent of Prince or the Bee Gees. It's jarring stuff, but like everything else on the record, it makes sense in the band's evolution and really adds a terrific new element to its repertoire.

After the opening tracks, the band enters "more familiar territory," as James put it, for the next good portion of the record. The falsetto, synths and big beats are suddenly replaced by James' typical (read: beautiful) crooning, steel-pedal guitar and plenty of country all around, while the band slowly and methodically mellows things out.

"I'm Amazed" is a classic MMJ Southern-rock guitar jam with plenty of guitar/piano interplay, while "Librarian" is a track as straightforward as they come, finding James in stripped-down singer/songwriter form, narrating and professing his secret love for the "sweetest little bookworm hidden underneath ... the sexiest librarian."

But the mellow middle of the record stands in sharp contrast to those first few tracks, which quickly begin to feel out of place as the record trudges on. That is until the end few rockers and the disco-y number "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream (Part 2)" take us full circle, kicking things back into the stratosphere and making even the middle of the record itself seem out of place.

Of the tracks, James said, "There's things that run through them. ... Even though a song doesn't necessarily sound the same, there's different themes and chord structures that pop up in a lot of them that you don't necessarily hear at first listen ... but as you listen to it more, you realize the interconnectedness within all the variety and different directions."

Recording in New York also changed the overall direction of the music, James said. "We kind of deliberately wanted to make it different from our previous environments, where it was more loose and stretched-out. We wanted the feeling of being under this thing to add a precision to it. ... I do feel like it was a hard record to make — the hardest record we've ever made. We did have a lot of fun in the conceiving of it, but in the making of it, it was work."

"We like to ask a lot, but we don't ask too much. I think we expect that from the listener," multi-instrumentalist Carl Broemel says of the record.

Evil Urges is an album that isn't easily digestible — even for the seasoned My Morning Jacket fan. And while much of the record is enjoyable if you compartmentalize it, as a whole it may take some getting used to.

[BH]

interconnectedness

Just from the little bit of the songs I've heard, I can understand what the reviewer is saying about the songs all being so different, but it also tells me that the interviewer doesn't really understand what this band is all about.    From a distance you could have said all of the same things about Z  or even At Dawn.   Play Honest Man, If It Smashes Down, and Phone Went West for someone who has never heard the album and you might have a hard time convincing them that it's the same band.  But now, it all flows together like a perfect soup with all the right ingredients (IMO).

I've always thought the best, most talented, artistic bands were the ones who refused to rest on their laurels and always pushed the boundries to discover new sounds and directions.  

What if Pink Floyd kept making the Saucer Full Of Secrets over and over again?  There would be no Dark Side Of The Moon.

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

i think it's comforting for a lot of listeners if the album is one and the same.  It makes it easier to know the bands style, the bands sound etc.  But one of the main reasons i love MMJ, is that they dont confine themselves to a single sound like the White Stripes or Death Cab do.  I kinda got the feeling the reviewer didn't like the way the band makes albums, but for the reasons he didn't like it, is the exact reason why I think I am going to like it.  

This album is gonna be HUGE regardless.  

[evilPaauwe]

This album is gonna be HUGE regardless.  

Exacty. This album is going to be explosive. You can mark my words.  I dont think the world is ready for this. I have a friend who likes mmj, but doesnt really consider them to be one of their favorite bands. If given the oppurtunity to see them in concert, he wouldnt necisarilly go. He also is completely infatuated with the latest  Of Montreal cd.   I bet you so much that once Evil Urges is released. He will have the NEED to see them live. As i do.

[Andrushka]

Also take into consideration whether or not the reviewer had more than one listen. This album is going to take some digestion that won't come with one sitting.

If he did in fact get a take-home copy...LEAK IT!

Haha, just playing.





Not really...

[The DARK]

But what does this mean about Good Intentions?  :-? Is it just the scream, or another number?

[Coltrane]

What Carl said in the article warms my heart...


"We like to ask a lot, but we don't ask too much. I think we expect that from the listener"



that's exactly what i look for in bands that i call "keepers." You know, the band who, when they release something new, you just go out and buy-- no hesitation. It's what makes a good artist in general. Ask alot of the viewer/listener (but not too much), and both parties will be greatly rewarded.

I like putting forth effort when i listen to music. it's way more important to me than something just playing in the background. It's an experience.

[Ive got an EVIL plan babe]

DARK Urges, it sounds like "Good Intentions" is the last track, but it is just a brief scream.  Basically, even though they're trying to scare the shit out of us, they're doing it with good intentions.

Also, reviews have been weird and JJ's description of the album was awkward at first.  I suspect that the band is expecting/worried about a mixed reaction more so than in the past.  With that said, it took me two listens to the SXSW show to warm up.  The album release and RCMH will be highlights of my summer for sure.

[The DARK]

From what I get from the reviews, Evil Urges is going to be a "journey" album, to be listened to as a whole. It seems clear from the interview that Jim had the structure of the album planned out far ahead of the tracklisting being chosen.

[weeniebeenie]

From what I get from the reviews, Evil Urges is going to be a "journey" album, to be listened to as a whole. It seems clear from the interview that Jim had the structure of the album planned out far ahead of the tracklisting being chosen.

I love albums like this. Like how you have to listen to Tommy all the way through. Awesome!

[Sherpa]

Hard to digest, even for the most seasoned mmj fan....... hmmmmm. Bring it.

[BIGVICLBI]

I continually listen to the live show on NPR. You can't really(well I'm pretty technologically inadvanced) scroll throught he songs precisely so I just listen to the whole thing. guess what?? I now don't even  say subconsiously "hey this is a new song!" They all just meld into the set. Is anybody really scared this album is gonna suck?

[Nikkogino]

Hard to digest, even for the most seasoned mmj fan....... hmmmmm. Bring it.

I love how all of these reviews keep saying that this album will alienate some MMJ fans.  It's not like this is the first time MMJ "evolved" from album to album.  The change from ISM to Z was pretty damn drastic and I think MMJ lost about zero fans.  This album is going to be different, but so far everyone has been pretty damn positive about what they are hearing.  I think this album is going to kick ass and diversify their already stellar live set even more.  I'm very excited.

[evilPaauwe]

Hard to digest, even for the most seasoned mmj fan....... hmmmmm. Bring it.

I love how all of these reviews keep saying that this album will alienate some MMJ fans.  It's not like this is the first time MMJ "evolved" from album to album.  The change from ISM to Z was pretty damn drastic and I think MMJ lost about zero fans.  This album is going to be different, but so far everyone has been pretty damn positive about what they are hearing.  I think this album is going to kick ass and diversify their already stellar live set even more.  I'm very excited.

I think you right. We keep hearing things about how its going to be a difficult listen will be difficult to "digest". I believe this is the mmj album that we ARE ready for. Before any solid news about the album were presented, people on this forum were going nuts, saying its going to be some crazy gospel, funk, crazy record. And thats exactly what it really seems to be. A real funky mmj record that its fans are dying to hear.  

[ms. yvon]

Evil Urges is an album that isn't easily digestible — even for the seasoned My Morning Jacket fan.

digestible?  wtf?  it's not a taco.

honestly.  some writers just give me a pain.

however:  the interview clip is rad!  i'm much more interested in hearing the band describe what they've got going on.  the responses of the band to the "rocked hard" statement and when jim outted tom as having the scream idea were great!   ;D

[searchinbig]

I continually listen to the live show on NPR. You can't really(well I'm pretty technologically inadvanced) scroll throught he songs precisely so I just listen to the whole thing. guess what?? I now don't even  say subconsiously "hey this is a new song!" They all just meld into the set. Is anybody really scared this album is gonna suck?

Okay, I'll confess. I've only been an MMJ fan since hearing "Wordless Chorus " on the local NPR station early 2006 here in NY. It blew me away and I've been a fan ever since.  Thats just the album, which I think is a classic. But the true test of any band in my opinion is the live show and holy crap does MMJ excel in that. Don't get too crazy listening to these people try to rationalize the new release. No, I don' t think this album will suck and I can't sleep at night just waiting for the release!! I can't seem to get enough of the new songs from the Austin show.