The Waterfall - Album Reviews

[ericm]

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.

Yeah, it's hard to give any credence to anything he says after that.   

[Stevie]

Dismisses ISM but calls Regions "Stunning," lol...

I shall now dismiss this reviewer forever.

[CC]

twelvetonereviews:
MY MORNING JACKET – A WATERFALL OF VIBES
8.5/10
https://twelvetonereviews.wordpress.com/2015/05/09/my-morning-jacket-a-waterfall-of-vibes-2/

The title of My Morning Jacket's latest LP, 'The Waterfall' stands as a metaphor for life beating down upon you. Or at least that's what frontman Jim James told Rolling Stone magazine, in a recent interview about the band's seventh album. Upon examination, this certainly stands true, but several even more obvious relations between title and content emerge.

From start to finish, the entire album feels closely connected with water ; every note of guitar flows and merges with the other in fluid-like perfection as Jones' enigmatic vocals wind their way from track to track. The resulting ensemble of sound results in a record that is at once uplifting, cuttingly insightful, and above all, impactful.

Never one to be constrained by genre, the endlessly appealing label-less nature of MMJ returns with a force. Influences ranging from John Martyn to Paul Simon are immediately apparent, all with an original veneer of My Morning Jacket's own style which galvanises every tone to create a record that is increasingly remarkable with every listen. Crucial to the ever unfolding drama present on this LP is a deeply ingrained spirituality which lies beneath the band's substantial musical talent. Jim James' vocal utilisation, ranging from emotional droning to emphatic groans, ties in peerlessly with throngs of wounded lyrics, punctuated by an array of dischordal introspective melodies.

'The Waterfall' is a river in itself ; aesthetically beautiful, with a  sense of power that is perhaps not immediately apparent. Above  all, this album demonstrates that even after two decades, My Morning Jacket's river of creativity has still not reached it's zenith.

[johnnYYac]

Van Hunt Talks My Morning Jacket's The Waterfall

Grammy-winning songwriter Van Hunt says My Morning Jacket has made a soft couch for aching bones.

http://thetalkhouse.com/music/talks/van-hunt-talks-my-morning-jackets-the-waterfall/

I spend hours online looking for inspiration — listening to music, new and old, trying to connect with the feeling that originally fueled my drive to create. One day, I found My Morning Jacket.

I want to close my eyes and concentrate on their new album The Waterfall but happiness threatens when I do. The first three drops — "Believe (Nobody Knows)," "Compound Fracture" and "Like a River" — make the kind of noise that I'm afraid to believe in. I fend off déjà vu as the drumskins and electric axes keep kicking the AM radio of my past into my present. But finally, at the first fortissimo, I say "fuck it" — and in an unobservable moment, I do. I actually do believe that My Morning Jacket is the panacea.

This record is irresistible. A soft couch for aching bones.

OK, now I wanna smoke. The fourth song, "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)," is darker than the beginning of the sequence and I welcome the guitar solo that arrives three-quarters of the way in. Thank you. Then "Get the Point" lopes into view and... oh man, I hope she gets the point, too. Oooh, that pedal steel should help drive it home! This is obviously a great song that shouldn't lose any "cool" because of that fact.

The first time I listened to The Waterfall, iTunes reshuffled the album's sequence. Big Brother is now making the decisions about what order I will listen to this album in. As I swivel and reach to turn off shuffle, "Big Decisions" cuts the line. The irony is too good to disrupt, so I recline. The song asks an important question: "What do you want me to do? Make all the big decisions for you?" And, of course, lovers will answer "yes" but in truth, my love only wants decisions made for it when it's weary and tired of being afraid of what could be next.

"Only Memories Remain" is my kind of dynamite. A sweet, sticky thang that gets caught up on itself. It's hot sugar: a chunk of high, punchy rhythm guitar jumping on a solid, concrete beat. I really enjoy MMJ's guitar solos, but they should have kept the groove going while this particulaIt's hot sugar: a chunk of high, punchy rhythm guitar jumping on a solid, concrete beat. r solo played. A bending note that goes as far as this one does to put its neck on the line for a sound deserves a safety net. But ahhh, the vamp... this is that Neil Young shit. In fact, I might "shoot my baby down by the river" after this track fades. Whoa, the drummer just went to the rimshot, and the band gathers itself for the finale.

Tennessee and Kentucky lie together on the map. It's fun to imagine the Louisville-sown MMJ purposely taking full advantage of their proximity to the former yards of Memphis pillars like William "Bell" Yarborough, Willie Mitchell and Isaac Hayes. But dig a little deeper into their roots and you can pull Appalachian bluegrass out of an African gourd — the kind of country music that swept all around the world via Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins, Buffalo Springfield and even Deep Purple.

MMJ isn't afraid to reach for more in the middle of a perfect drone. They can get jangly and punch holes through a bag. "Spring (Among the Living)" slaps you with a Tower of Power/Fela Kuti groove, which can be gratifyingly strange when filtered through the Bluegrass State.

I can tell "Thin Line" is going to do me in. This joint sounds like the Persuaders rehearsing next door to the Flaming Lips after distortion vaporized the dividing wall. The trill of the strings adds a shimmering escort for the song's exit. "Tropics (Erase Traces)" is the last song (on Big Brother's shuffled sequence, anyway). It makes me wish I was experiencing it on an evening with 30,000 other Woodstock fugitives. Frame by frame, toke by toke, and indeed, we would erase the traces.

I used to have a writing partner, given to hopeful creativity. I trusted him to stretch out the anxious-less environment of his sound, forever and ever. He had a Jim James-esque quality to his playing that held little in the way of self-consciousness. Almost without ego, but pushy in ways, too. He was sort of a gracious host who ignored my self-indulgence by firmly insisting I relax and have a good time. My Morning Jacket, maybe even more so than my former writing partner, could fulfill the promise of undying heavens.

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket's "The Waterfall": You've never heard Jim James like this

The frontman switches up his approach on what may be My Morning Jacket's darkest — and best — album yet

Stephen Deusner

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/my_morning_jackets_the_waterfall_youve_never_heard_jim_james_like_this/

If 2015 has already been a good year for music, it's been an especially good year for that time-honored rock-and-roll totem, the break-up album. Back in January Los Angeles folk singer Jessica Pratt conveyed heartache via tape manipulations and Duran Duran quotes on her latest album, "On Your Own Love Again," which stands as one of the most obsessively listenable records of the year. Then came Björk's "Vulnicura," a contorted monument to her split with artist Matthew Barney that earned comparisons to Joan Didion's grief memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking."

By these standards, My Morning Jacket's "The Waterfall" depicts a not-quite-sympathetic male protagonist similar to an Updike antihero—caddish, self-absorbed, impatient with the women in his life. Especially for a band that straddles the bro and the indie-rock audiences, the frankness of these new songs can be unsettling, at times even off-putting. On the other hand, "The Waterfall" may be the Louisville band's best, most ambitious, and most nuanced effort in more than a decade, a musically inventive and lyrically nuanced collection that isn't quite a concept album, but plays like one. It might be better described as a story album, as frontman Jim James recounts a particularly bad split and comes out the other end with new perspective.

"Get the Point" starts as a gentle folk tune, with a coffeeshop guitar strum, a rainy-day melody, and James wishing an ex "all the love in this world and beyond." It's a sweet sentiment, yet he follows it up with sarcasm: "I hope you get the point... the thrill is gone." It's the first hint that James will bust out of his established gentle-beardo persona and play the villain in these songs. First single "Big Decisions" is perhaps the standout, with its big, crunchy hook and its almost combative tone. "I'm getting so tired of trying to always be nice," James declares, so he stops trying.

When "Big Decisions" was released as the album's first single back in March, it had an air of bravado, as though it was about wriggling free of a destructive situation. And James told Rolling Stone recently that the song was inspired by a group of friends who were more interested in bitching than in improving their circumstances. Yet, there are so few concrete details in the lyrics that the song takes on a new meaning in the context of "The Waterfall," where the surrounding songs suggest a darker, more combative tone. In particular, the chorus sounds like a putdown, insulting and even infantilizing its dismissiveness: "What do you want me to do? Make all the big decisions for you." It's an ugly scene, and "The Waterfall" begins to sound like the least generous break-up album in recent memory.

And yet.

"The Waterfall" wouldn't be as compelling if it didn't sound so good. That actually goes a long way, especially during a week when Mumford & Sons are redefining their aesthetic from bland acoustic uplift to even blander electric uplift. Ever since My Morning Jacket dropped its debut "The Tennessee Fire" in 1999, they've consistently been one of the weirdest rock bands of the new millennium, refining oddball heartland rock into epic stage shows that have made them festival favorites. James' massively reverbed vocals inspired a glut of similar acts during the 2000s (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes), but the band's slinky slow jams and rustic psychedelic rave-ups have proved less influential and more idiosyncratic.

By some standards—i.e., the exquisitely lo-fi "Tennesse Fire" and its follow-up, "At Dawn"—"The Waterfall" may sound clean and polished, but that only makes it easier for us to hear what's going on in these songs. And there's a lot going on: prog and jamband rock collide with r&b, country, and folk, sounding immense without sacrificing nuance. Guitars still provide the crunchy riffs and the skybound solos, but they're rarely the dominant instruments. Instead, My Morning Jacket gives just as much weight to cinematic strings, rigid drum machines, jittery synths, and the occasional choir singing wordless choruses. It sounds familiar and new at the same time.

"The Waterfall" is a well-shaped album, sequenced with great care to emphasize a certain self-awareness. Had these songs been arranged in any other order, they might have sounded dour and defeatist, yet the tracklist eases you into the dark drama of the album, starting with the opener. "Believe (Nobody Knows)" is likely the sunniest and cheesiest song they've ever recorded, the latest in a long line of out-of-leftfield openers. It's a slice of major-key promcore rock that could have played over the closing credits of "American Anthem" or any other '80s teen sports flick—outré by design but not necessarily retro, bombastic but wholly unironic. It's exactly the kind of song that demands a sea of lighters (or whatever people hold up these days during climactic concert moments) and a crowd singing along with every word.

Nothing else on "The Waterfall" sounds even remotely like "Believe," of course. Nothing else sounds quite so generous or hopeful, either. The song sitting at the top of the tracklist distracts you from the fact that "The Waterfall" is a very dark album for this band; it puts the happy ending right at the beginning, if only to make the downers that follow sound a bit less prickly, a bit less tense. It takes a while for those darker themes to emerge, as the first half of the album shuffles through various metaphors for life and relationships: love is "like a river windin' its way," a romantic split hurts like a compound fracture. A little Hallmark here, a little horror show there.

Granted, it's all too easy to conflate rock singers with their rock songs—to hear lyrics as a direct and unfiltered reflection of whoever is delivering them. However direct and confessional this record may sound, it's helpful for us to think of James as an actor playing a role or inhabiting a character. That shouldn't lessen the impact of the music or diminish its candor — it's just how songwriting works, creating a useful distance between the artist and his subject matter. In other words, we can hear James sing a lyric like, "It's a thin line between lovin' and wasting my time," and still distinguish between a songwriter purposefully misquoting Al Green and an unreliable narrator presenting only one side of the story.

Listening to this or almost any other breakup album is like eavesdropping on someone arguing over the phone. You can only hear one side of the conversation. The obvious exception is Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," which features band members writing some pretty harsh songs about each other. But very rarely does the other person have an opportunity to tell his or more often her version of events. All we hear is the singer's story, so we naturally tend to commiserate with him. Bjork's "Vulnicura" offers a useful counterpoint here. Musically the album is monochromatic, with each song set to a similarly austere string arrangement and a few nonintrusive beats. Emotionally, however, it is intense, as Bjork conveys a wounded desperation that sounds all too real. First she struggles to convince herself that things can get better ("Maybe he'll come out of this loving me"), then she tries to figure out how to live a life beyond this relationship ("When I'm broken, I am whole").

Bjork inhabits her role a bit more easily than James plays his, although that may be due to how forthcoming she has been about the real events that inspired these songs. She is definitely the more sympathetic figure, albeit not quite as interesting: Pop music is littered with broken hearts, but there are relatively few conflicted heartbreakers. Although he's been — to his credit — tight-lipped about the specific inspirations behind these songs, there's something intriguing and useful about the way he shirks our sympathies, expanding the rift between him and the "I" in his songs. "The Waterfall" puts you right in the middle of the kinds of uncomfortable arguments that everyone has, as though James was working through these issues in real time.

Perhaps it's even brave for a songwriter to put himself out there right before the summer, when long tours and various festival dates will have him singing these songs, reliving these arguments, and inhabiting these roles night after night after night. He won't be wasting his time, though. Or ours.

[rincon2]

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.

I admire the enthusiasm of this review, but the connections to other music that are made are sure not ones I have made. It is almost like he heard a different album than me.

[MMJCOBRA]

My Morning Jacket's "The Waterfall": You've never heard Jim James like this

The frontman switches up his approach on what may be My Morning Jacket's darkest — and best — album yet
Stephen Deusner


I really like Deusners reviews. He goes way back at p4k and really nails his take on the waterfall. 

[johnnYYac]

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/listening-post-brief-reviews-of-select-releases-20150510

My Morning Jacket, "The Waterfall" (ATO). Indie-rock lovers are supposed to despise jam bands. So My Morning Jacket must be confusing for them. The band makes records that push all the proper indie buttons – obvious fascination with Bob Dylan and The Band, a full understanding of rustic Americana, a fearless experimental side that allows for the retention of actual hooks . But then, on the concert stage, the tunes turn into epic swirls of psychedelic sonic overload that suggest what it might sound like if Thin Lizzy covered Phish with Bob Dylan singing in his "Lay Lady Lay" voice. In broad, sweepingly general terms, this is the kind of thing indie-rockers despise. MMJ has made a career of bridging the gap – they are embraced by both the indie and jam camps, and they manage to routinely satisfy both of them. With "The Waterfall," its first album in four years, MMJ has crafted on of its finest and most cohesive efforts. It's an album that marries lyrical thematic content centered on human struggles with the big issues – our place in the natural order of things, the cruel and persistent effects of time's passage, how relationships withstand the ravages of years – to a huge, eminently soulful marriage of folk, rock, R&B, pop, country, and "jammy" aspects, all held together by Jim James' aching high tenor. There are bona fide "roll down the windows and crank it!" summer anthems; ("Big Decisions") ruminative Dylan-esque pieces; ("Like A River," "Only Memories Remain," "Hillside Song") and funky psychedelia ("Compound Fracture," "Believe (Nobody Knows)"). All of them work remarkably well, particularly when the deft, subtle production flourishes – strings, occasional horns, the application of gauzy reverb to James' voice when appropriate – are worked into the mix. "The Waterfall" captures MMJ at a peak. ½

[johnnYYac]

http://www.treblezine.com/reviews/23147-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

My Morning Jacket has a history of letting the physical location of their recording influence the overall sound of the album itself. For their latest, The Waterfall, their travels took them to Stinson Beach, a veritable cul-de-sac of narrow beaches, natural wonders and big boulders about 30 miles north of San Francisco. Specifically, they holed up in Panoramic House, a studio high up on a hill, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Their initial objective was vague enough: Make a record. In the process, they painted a vast landscape composed of notes, beats, voices and textures.

The Waterfall opens with the musical equivalent of water trickling down and around rocks. On "Believe (Nobody Knows)," Jim James bounces and cascades through the verse, and the piano follows suit. You can't help but imagine a stream of rain seeking the ocean, kissing the stones along the way. The majestic chorus is the large body of water, welcoming its children home. On "Like a River," James sustains a falsetto over light instrumentation and orchestration with a melody that harkens back to the early '70s flower child movement; you can see the young women in the banks shedding their dresses for a dip, daisies still in their hair. The crashes on "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" are, themselves, a waterfall that has been interrupted, and this point made clear in the lyrics, "again I stop the waterfall by simply thinking."

The nature theme continues, at least in a titular way, in "Spring (Among the Living)" and "Tropics (Erase Traces)," and they evoke the feelings implied in their names. The latter starts with an acoustic structure that is warm and calming, and even when it picks up, the minor chords and harmonies feel sandy and serene. Other songs, like "Compound Fracture" and "Big Decisions," don't appear to match the direction of the rest of the album, but they are also the more upbeat than the more picturesque tracks, providing textural contrast in that way.

The Waterfall ends with the eerily empty "Memories Remain." The sparseness of the instrumentation on this closing number hints of an empty or emptying room, as if the band is cleaning up their canvases and brushes and packing up their things. In their wake, they left behind a portrait of a northern California beach that does not have to be seen with the eyes to be pictured.

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket is easily the greatest band ever to have emerged from Louisville.

http://www.suindependent.com/news/id_8718/Album-Review:-The-Waterfall-by-My-Morning-Jacket.html

Of course, the uninitiated most likely only know Louisville as a big town in Kentucky and immediately write it off as irrelevant redneck territory. Louisville seemingly has an invisible force field much like the glass dome that encapsulated Springfield in "The Simpsons Movie." Except Louisville's is made of magic rather than glass, and it keeps most of the low-IQ "yeehawness" of typical doofus Kentucky culture out. In short, it's the Austin or Portland of Kentucky.

To illustrate, one will immediately notice when visiting Louisville, like walking out an abattoir into an open field, a marked absence of the marble-mouthed southern accents that plague the rest of the region. Take it from a veteran of the Bible Belt that this can be a huge relief!

Sure, there's Lexington (which is really just a pile of old money), and there are a few other medium-sized cities, like Elizabethtown (Johnny Depp's hometown), Bowling Green (home to Cage The Elephant), and Owensboro, the self-proclaimed "Bluegrass Capitol of the World." But Louisville is the city that truly lies between Nashville and Cincinnati, at least culturally, and My Morning Jacket is the only band to have emerged from Kentucky onto the global music scene with any lasting power.

In retrospect, when MMJ frontman Jim James—and with a name like that, it already feels like there's a Jeff Foxworthy joke on the periphery—first released "The Tennessee Fire," not much happened. There was some shuffling of personnel, and it wasn't until 2005, with the release of "Z" that things really clicked for two reasons. First, the members who've comprised MMJ since then came on board. But more importantly, and perhaps in an effort to change things up as much as possible, James wisely employed John Leckie as producer—the same John Leckie who produced Radiohead's "The Bends." To that end, "Z" has more than once been referred to their "OK Computer"; furthermore, "Evil Urges" had the same exploratory feel as Radiohead's "Kid A." Just as Radiohead went from being some dudes with guitars to a collective of sound engineers, MMJ went from being something kind of folky or whatever to being hailed (and rightly so) by rock critic MJ Wycha as "The best thing to happen to rock in years," accolades that have been widely and consistently echoed for the past decade.

So "The Waterfall" can be heard as both a journey as well as a destination. It is speckled with various elements of previous records but refuses to settle firmly into any of it, instead content to display a kaleidoscopic aural plumage from soul to prog rock to driving '80s rock and country.

Like a returning champion entering the ring, "Believe (Nobody Knows)" opens confidently, dropping both lyrics and textures evocative of Phish's "Prince Caspian." There are traces of a drum machine as well as a melodic loop in the background, but it largely feels like the rock version of a punch in the face.

Almost as if to be contrarian, "Compound Fracture" brings jazz, Motown, and soft rock elements into play. Octave strings float unobtrusively over Gloria Gaynor-worthy "ooh-ooh-oohs," and James sounds a little like a cross between Lenny Kravitz and Don Henley, if you can imagine that. Drummer Patrick Hallahan lays it down like a boss, driving straight and solid while the rest of the band weaves together something that would closely resemble Steve Winwood or Bruce Hornsby if it didn't have so damned much swagger. In fact, it would be no surprise if this song actually got someone pregnant.

Again switching gears, James assumes a falsetto and picks up an acoustic guitar. "Like a River" sounds like something written from the foothills of Appalachia. Every bit of magic MMJ ever poured into anything in the past is present in "Like a River," which almost sounds like Joni Mitchell or Kansas merging bluegrass overtones with the grandeur of the tone poems of Richard Strauss.

"In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)" is dramatic and stage-ready, mixing The Who's "Who Are You?" with The Band's "Chest Fever" and even throwing a little Steve Miller keytar riffage in. Structurally, the body of the song is bookended by a low and dirty Fender Rhodes, and the song itself is bookended by folk as "Get the Point" follows, which is more arguably country music than . . . well, just about anything out of Nashville anymore that claims to be "country." Carl Broemel demonstrates his finesse with a pedal steel, which he coaxes and caresses like Gary Morse.

Another made-for-the-stadium wailer is "Spring (Among the Living)," an Iggy Pop-esque homage to the advent of warmer weather. In its wake, the summery "Thin Line" blends the Flaming Lips and Neil Young together into a relaxed yet impassioned dichotomy.

"Big Decisions" is a heavy-handed and exasperated appeal to someone "sweet and sincere, but so ruled by fear," whom he implores, "What do you want me to do? / Make all the big decisions for you?" For once, James sounds like a native Kentuckian, appropriately pronouncing "well, I can't" as "well, I cain't."

Effectively combining the plaintive simplicity of REM with the orchestral splendor of Yes, "Tropics (Erase Traces)" is equal parts prog rock and folk music. In contrast, and almost as an afterthought, "Only Memories Remain" is a hazy, bluesy afterparty, decidedly relaxed and bittersweetly navel-gazing.

"The Waterfall" is simply triumphant, the work of a quintet at their height. Mature without stagnating, it's their cleanest and most focused album yet. It blends a wide variety of influences into something unique without leaning on them as gimmicks. It's self-referential without being masturbatory or egoistic. It expands and even revives the decades-long rock narrative that, as of 2015, has largely dead-ended elsewhere in the music industry. If you happen to have ten bucks lying around, you'd be foolish not to spend it on "The Waterfall."

[johnnYYac]

Review of The Waterfall Album by My Morning Jacket

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

My Morning Jacket's seventh studio album 'The Waterfall', their first in four years, finds Jim James' five-piece band in a psychedelic and pastoral mood. It demonstrates many of the experimental tendencies of James' 2013 solo effort 'Regions Of Light And Sound Of God', but I must admit that I've warmed less to these songs than other critics. Culled from a productive set of sessions in Northern California, this is the first of two My Morning Jacket albums planned for the next twelve months. The tracks are infused with the hazy sunshine that you'd expect from that location, but many of them became background noise to me far too quickly. The material feels comfortable, familiar even, but it felt a bit like wallpaper. Intricate, very detailed and occasionally beautiful wallpaper, but wallpaper all the same.

That description does sound more detrimental than it should, but it is appropriate. Imagine landscapes that sprawl as far as you can see, littered with tiny details that you're more interested in than the overall picture. The term wallpaper may suggest repetition, there's little of that here, however the picture that's painted by James only temporarily catches your attention, that's where the analogy is strongest. To be fair, the moments where the ideas and sounds become less complex and more focussed are among My Morning Jacket's strongest work to date. There aren't enough of those moments for my money to make this one of their best albums though.

The emotional pinnacle of 'The Waterfall' is also perhaps its most striking moment; 'Get The Point' is a simple guitar lament to the breakdown of a relationship. It echoes the understated beauty of Paul McCartney's 'White Album' performance of 'Blackbird', comparisons have also been drawn elsewhere to Nilsson's 'Everybody's Talkin''. The song really is the jewel in the crown of 'The Waterfall', not least because it strips away some of the psychedelic haze to reveal James sharing an honesty that many of us find hard to put into words ("I hope you get the point, I think our love is done"). This is the most affecting break-up song I've heard in a long time, that much of the rest of the album doesn't reach this high water mark remains a problem for me. That's because I know that My Morning Jacket have the tools to prompt such a strong reaction as with this particular track.

That's not to say the other songs are dramatically disappointing, it's just parts of them feel perfunctory. Take, for example, opener 'Believe (Nobody Knows)'. The vocals, guitars and strings are gloriously bathed in reverb to up the ante of this feel-good anthem, but underneath Bo Koster's consistent keyboard part doesn't seem to have been afforded the same production flourishes, which renders it somewhat anodyne. That ultimately just becomes distracting. Elsewhere, 'Like A River' is a beautiful hymn to the countryside, but like many Fleet Foxes songs that it brings to mind, the track reaches a choral swirl and then doesn't really go anywhere.

When My Morning Jacket do hit their stride here, such as the first two singles, you remember quite how magnificent they can be. The Alt-Country stomp of 'Big Decisions' and the Technicolor wig out that closes 'Spring (Among The Living)' are both glorious to behold, but there just weren't enough of those moments for me in the overall picture. I'm hoping the second collection of material from these sessions contains a better balance of those striking details, which will make it stand out from the crowd. If 'The Waterfall' feels a little like wallpaper to me, that's probably because I'm hoping its sister record will be like that rug in the Big Lebowski, something to really pull the room together.

3/5

Jim Pusey

[johnnYYac]

Album | My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
by For Folk's Sake • 12 May 2015

http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31724/album-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

The idea was always there, in its infancy. The seed took root over many years.

So sings Jim James on 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)' – and, four years after their last album Circuital and 10 since the classic Z, My Morning Jacket are back in style. A typically sprawling journey through rock, folk and psychedelia, The Waterfall plays to the band's many strengths while sidestepping the odder diversions of 2008's Evil Urges.

If 'Believe (Nobody Knows)' is a slightly sluggish opening, the catchy 'Compound Fracture' quickly provides a sense of where the album is heading before it really hits its stride over the remainder of its first half. 'Like A River' is an apt title for a song that twinkles prettily into being while the quasi-title track is perhaps the album's stand-out moment.

Pink Floyd come to mind on 'Only Memories Remain' and 'Spring (Among The Living)' – throw in 'Tropics (Erase Traces)' and there really are a lot of brackets on this album – while 'Thin Line' actually mentions "crazy diamonds". Elsewhere, a pair of jaunty-sounding songs actually contain conflicted romantic messages – "You're sweet and sexy, but..." amid the chiming power chords of single 'Big Decisions' and an amicable approach to a break-up on the tender, country-hued 'Get The Point'.

James is 37 now and, as hinted at in the album's lyrics and discussed in recent interviews, has been through the wringer both emotionally and physically through his career. But if this strong set of songs is any indication, there's plenty of life in MMJ yet – and James has even suggested the next album might not be so long in coming.

For now, though, be sure to enjoy all this one has to offer – there's plenty to go at.

Words: Tom White

[Angelo]

Album | My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
by For Folk's Sake • 12 May 2015

http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31724/album-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

The idea was always there, in its infancy. The seed took root over many years.

So sings Jim James on 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)' – and, four years after their last album Circuital and 10 since the classic Z, My Morning Jacket are back in style. A typically sprawling journey through rock, folk and psychedelia, The Waterfall plays to the band's many strengths while sidestepping the odder diversions of 2008's Evil Urges.

If 'Believe (Nobody Knows)' is a slightly sluggish opening, the catchy 'Compound Fracture' quickly provides a sense of where the album is heading before it really hits its stride over the remainder of its first half. 'Like A River' is an apt title for a song that twinkles prettily into being while the quasi-title track is perhaps the album's stand-out moment.

Pink Floyd come to mind on 'Only Memories Remain' and 'Spring (Among The Living)' – throw in 'Tropics (Erase Traces)' and there really are a lot of brackets on this album – while 'Thin Line' actually mentions "crazy diamonds". Elsewhere, a pair of jaunty-sounding songs actually contain conflicted romantic messages – "You're sweet and sexy, but..." amid the chiming power chords of single 'Big Decisions' and an amicable approach to a break-up on the tender, country-hued 'Get The Point'.

James is 37 now and, as hinted at in the album's lyrics and discussed in recent interviews, has been through the wringer both emotionally and physically through his career. But if this strong set of songs is any indication, there's plenty of life in MMJ yet – and James has even suggested the next album might not be so long in coming.

For now, though, be sure to enjoy all this one has to offer – there's plenty to go at.

Words: Tom White

"sweet and sexy" 

[justbcuzido]

Album | My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
by For Folk's Sake • 12 May 2015

http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31724/album-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall

The idea was always there, in its infancy. The seed took root over many years.

So sings Jim James on 'In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)' – and, four years after their last album Circuital and 10 since the classic Z, My Morning Jacket are back in style. A typically sprawling journey through rock, folk and psychedelia, The Waterfall plays to the band's many strengths while sidestepping the odder diversions of 2008's Evil Urges.

If 'Believe (Nobody Knows)' is a slightly sluggish opening, the catchy 'Compound Fracture' quickly provides a sense of where the album is heading before it really hits its stride over the remainder of its first half. 'Like A River' is an apt title for a song that twinkles prettily into being while the quasi-title track is perhaps the album's stand-out moment.

Pink Floyd come to mind on 'Only Memories Remain' and 'Spring (Among The Living)' – throw in 'Tropics (Erase Traces)' and there really are a lot of brackets on this album – while 'Thin Line' actually mentions "crazy diamonds". Elsewhere, a pair of jaunty-sounding songs actually contain conflicted romantic messages – "You're sweet and sexy, but..." amid the chiming power chords of single 'Big Decisions' and an amicable approach to a break-up on the tender, country-hued 'Get The Point'.

James is 37 now and, as hinted at in the album's lyrics and discussed in recent interviews, has been through the wringer both emotionally and physically through his career. But if this strong set of songs is any indication, there's plenty of life in MMJ yet – and James has even suggested the next album might not be so long in coming.

For now, though, be sure to enjoy all this one has to offer – there's plenty to go at.

Words: Tom White

"sweet and sexy" 

Lol, that's how I still hear the lyrics even though I know it's wrong.

[BH]

Love the style of the Van Hunt review.   Very cool.

[Angelo]

Me too, BH. I actually have a Van Hunt CD in my collection here from my days working at a record store. I used to play it often in store. Not sure how it holds up today as that was probably 10 years ago.

[johnnYYac]

Album Review: My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall

http://fiusm.com/2015/05/12/album-review-my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall/

By: Adrian Herrera
Staff Writer

On their 7th studio album, Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket prove that they can still weave through genres as easily as a river meanders through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Shifting from neo-soul to psychedelic-folk to straight on blues-rock, The Waterfall never ceases to impress with a kaleidoscopic palette of sounds that root themselves firmly in classic Americana, but branch steadily up into the cosmos.

Coming out of a spinal injury, a break-up, and extreme writer's block, front-man Jim James struggles to relocate himself among the ruins of his past. His straightforward lyrics and earnest, country-boy croon lay his heart bare as each song tells of hardships he has overcome: a lost love, stifled creativity, self-doubt. But don't mistake this album for a cry for help – it's a victory march, a triumph of acceptance and positivity over self-deprecation. The Waterfall is itself a metaphor for the flow of ideas that creators battle to control without overflowing or drying up. On the title track, James realizes, "the idea was always there in its infancy, the seed took root over many years." He understands that the desire to create is something innate within him, but more importantly that he must follow his own internal current down that river. The opening track, "Believe," finds James wailing, "believe nobody knows," a call for faith in one's self, and a shot at all the critics and even friends that think they know his path better than he does. On "Get the Point," we witness the death of a relationship. Jim James wishes his former lover, "all the love in this world," but hopes that they "get the point:" a tender yet firm message that shows James standing tall and resolute all on his own, needing no outside affirmation to find peace in his choices.

As Jim James wades out of the mess of his emotions, the band provides a sonic foundation that is heavy enough for him to stand on. Like a great DJ, the band has an ability to find aural links between styles that don't immediately suggest each other. The closing song, "Only Memories," is a slow, patient ballad that is as much reminiscent of Motown R&B as it is of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. Mixing 70's pop song-writing sensibility with a 21st century knack for experimentation, the instrumentation and production are clean and purposeful, making this the most stylistically varied, yet cohesive sounding My Morning Jacket album to date.

Far-out yet familiar, The Waterfall is a work of artistic maturity – an album about perseverance in the face of self-doubt by a band that has been around the block a few times, had some fights along the way, but still manages to know itself. There are loud, proud songs, quiet, pained songs, and ethereal tracks of introspection and mystery. With so much variety, anyone can find songs on this album that speak to them directly. Give this one a good, thorough listen – its depth of emotion and range of styles will reward you.

Stand-Out Tracks: "Like a River," "The Waterfall," "Get the Point," "Thin Line," "Tropics," "Only Memories"

[johnnYYac]

http://www.thefourohfive.com/music/review/my-morning-jacket-the-waterfall-143

There's always an air of poise and unease amongst fans when My Morning Jacket announce the release of a new album. The Kentucky group are serial nomads, vacating the ground they've conquered before everybody has had a chance to notice the flag which has been hoisted. By the time that the likes of Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses were attracting critical acclaim and chart success for a reverb-heavy sound based on that of My Morning Jacket's first few records, the group had evolved. It was 2008, and despite asking the question "did we just not do it long enough?" they were focussed on working with the psychedelic, pulsating sounds that define their albums Z and Evil Urges rather than "one more record of harmonies and folk shit."

And the group emerged from that period with what seemed like the all-important final piece of their jigsaw. They held two immersive and spiritualistic records that were able to take their live shows to a hypnotic, ethereal place that not many music fans had experienced before. Their reaction to the inevitable accolades and success that followed was typically aloof. In the wake of American Dad basing an episode on their protagonists' obsession with the band, they received adrenaline shot of exposure. You'd have expected that My Morning Jacket would react to this by continuing in the same vein stylistically and enjoying their well-earned time in the sun. However, Jim James and co. were unfazed, instead opting for a rawer, more sonically honest approach with their 2011 follow-up, Circuital.

History shows that their decision-making may have held them back in terms of mainstream success, but it's never been about that for the group. James' only vision is to "somehow just be true to ourselves and be able to keep making a living." This instinctual decision-making is one of the reasons that they've managed to be both relevant and a step ahead of their sound for the past fifteen years. Four years on from Circuital, we're told a story of new beginnings and acceptance in its close relative, The Waterfall.

This collection is built similarly to Circuital and there's not too much that will be completely foreign for listeners. Whether it's the folk-influenced aesthetics of 'Get The Point' or the immersive 'Tropics (Erase Traces)', most of the components featured have a sense of culpability from the bands past and James' recent solo endeavours. In writing through a self-reflective collage, they are trying new formulas in order to gain a new perspective on older methods. In doing so, the songwriting has become more dynamic and tighter. Otherwise, you can detect an atmosphere influenced by the era of the mid-seventies through to the eighties in which soul and rock n' roll walked hand in hand. Whether it's shards of the soulful Bryan Ferry on 'Compound Fracture' or the understated melodic aperitifs of George Harrison with 'Big Decisions', the material has a pronounced devotion to that warmth.

In the latter half of The Waterfall comes 'Thin Line' - one of the best songs that the group has written to date - and it captures great tension. It has a seemingly simplistic calling hook made up of saccharine, legato style instrumentation and nimble guitar work from Carl Broemel that conjures an atmosphere of calmness but it is brazenly answered by an off-kilter, minor key response. From the top to the bottom, the song walks this tightrope throughout, punctuating the unique clash between brightness and reality that adds a great depth to the whole record.

The Waterfall is inescapably progressive in its developed lyrical content and style. It is brimming with lush sweetness, melancholy, frustration and acceptance that documents the meteoric feeling of moving on from a love in your life. "I hope you get the point, the thrill is gone. I hope you get the point, I think our love is done." James sings on 'Get The Point'. As you can hear on 'Big Decisions' and 'Thin Line' for the first time in their career, James sounds like he is at a loss with what to do and his only remaining option is to walk away from the whole thing. This shift in style doesn't feel like a pessimistic or destructive process though, ultimately leaving you with a different shade of optimism. Instead of painting in broad strokes of spiritual language or speaking through a veil of hopefulness like in "wonderful, the way I feel," he frankly tells us the release's final sentiment; that despite his loss, what's "done is done" and "the love we share outlives us all." It represents the biggest evolution in the group's dialogue since their '99 introduction, At Dawn The Tennessee Fire.

This record should be coupled with its predecessor but it without doubt exceeds its ambitions. Whilst this as much about honesty and a return to core values as Circuital, it has come from a more fraught, pertinent transitional period in the group's time. In many ways, it feels like the bookend to this era for the quintet. Sentimentally, it's a collection obsessed thematically by loss, the unknown, and new beginnings ('Spring Among The Living'). This is a bittersweet send-off to what once was ('Only Memories Remain'), and that idea of new beginnings has bled into the songwriting. Those expecting the sort of upheaval in sound from My Morning Jacket that we've become accustomed to in the past will be disappointed, but the ground they've covered is in unusual territories like language and its intense bindings to the instrumentation. And though these movements can currently seem minor and a little tertiary, if history has taught us anything, it is that we need a little time to pass before we can fully appreciate the significance of the five-piece's decision-making.

Rating: 7.5/10

[jrat]

first login since 2008 (how i remembered any of my details is beyond me)

FINALLY!!!! while I liked Evil Urges and Circuital, this is next level. 4th listen on shit headphones at a work computer older than my first jizz sock, and it still sounds like everything ive craved on an MMJ album since discovering them in january 06 and worked backward through their catalog! Can't wait to see them rip into this stuff live.

[johnnYYac]

My Morning Jacket continues to defy genres

http://www.thespectrum.com/story/entertainment/2015/05/21/morning-jacket-continues-defy-genres/27732403/

A problem has plagued My Morning Jacket since its brilliant 2005 album, "Z." Each time the Louisville quintet comes close to replicating that genius there are always one or two tracks that seem to derail the groove train.

Well they have finally pulled it off with "The Waterfall," the seventh album from frontman Jim James and crew. This is My Morning Jacket doing what they do best, pulling from a variety of influences and genres — from folk, country and Southern rock to soul, funk and progressive rock — and combining them in a way that is entirely unique.

The brilliance of MMJ is how the band seamlessly integrates these genres, not only within songs but from song to song, going from country on one track to rock 'n' roll on the next while still managing to maintain a cohesive sound. Anchored by Carl Broemel's mournful pedal steel, "Get The Point" is a gorgeous country break-up song that immediately precedes the pulsating rocker "Spring (Among The Living)," where Broemel turns in his guitar for a blazing saxophone.

"Like A River" finds MMJ embracing folk music more than ever as James' ethereal vocals soar over a delicate and pristine mix of acoustic guitars and swooning pedal steel. Meanwhile, "Believe" has that Radiohead meets Allman Brothers things going on that the band explored on "Z," but the atmospherics are at once rootsier and spacier than ever while the guitar licks are even sweeter than before.

The Jacket has long championed the art of guitar solos and strong leads in the world of indie rock, where lyrics and hooks often overshadow rock 'n' roll heroics. "Thin Line" continues that mission, kicking off with a classic rock riff straight out of the early '70s (via Radiohead), while "Tropics (Erase Traces)" finds the band building an epic track off a simple but undeniably addictive little guitar noodle before exploding into a headbang-worthy solo, making a case for "The Waterfall" as the guitar album of the year.

It's not just the guitars, though. Bo Koster's keyboard hook that opens "Compound Fracture" is one of the catchiest bits yet from this band as James does his best white-boy soul. James also brings his soulful side to the elegant closing track, "Only Memories Remain," where his falsetto wraps itself around lines like, "Our earthly bodies will surely fall / But the love we share outlives us all" — a line that could be cheesy if it wasn't so beautifully delivered.

The album's first single, the ultra-catchy Southern rocker "Big Decisions" marks a first for MMJ as James — the primary songwriter — collaborates outside the band, co-writing with song doctor Dan Wilson, the former Semisonic frontman who has penned tracks for artists as diverse as Taylor Swift, Adele, Nas, Dixie Chicks and Weezer.

But the key track here is "In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)." It's as good as anything the band has done ... maybe better. It's a song that has everything, from a funky groove to a beautiful chorus melody and tight instrumentation to captivating lyrics. In short, it's a five-minute-12-second thesis on why My Morning Jacket is one of today's great bands.