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Z
My Morning Jacket
Ato Records
- List price: $12.98
- Lowest new price: $18.90
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Wordless Chorus- It Beats 4 U
- Gideon
- What A Wonderful Man
- Off The Record
- Into The Woods
- Anytime
- Lay Low
- Knot Comes Loose
- Dondante
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This little CD won't make you catch the Zzzzzz's...
There's something that happens to good and interesting bands, well they change. For some bands it just takes sheer boredom, boredom with their signature sound, for some it takes a spirit of creativity and experimentalism, and for some it takes tragedy. Louisville, Kentucky's Jim James, and his fellow daybreak jackets, experience a little bit of turmoil and tragedy leading up to 2005's release of Z, My Morning Jacket's (as best as I can come up with) fourth studio album.
Leading up to Jacket's Z, founding band member, Johnny Quaid (no relation to Dennis), and guitarist departed the band along with the keyboardist Danny Cash. The question is out there, will Quaid and Cash someday become the infamous 5th Beatles? I'll answer that one now, nope, neither one have been associated with the Beatles, only My Morning Jacket so it's kind of an impossibility.
So you didn't come here to read this to listen to my random inane ramblings. You want to know the dish and dirt on Z. Is it any good? Should I bother spending time listening to it and getting to know it? Will I be considered a middle aged hipster if I start claiming allegiance to My Morning Jacket's ever growing legion of loyal fans? The answers my fellow Amazonians are yes, yes, and heck yeah!
Some people would say that My Morning Jacket became the next Wilco with the release of Z. Well, that would be shorting MMJ methinks. They are this eclectic amalgam whose music is very hard to pigeonhole. The musicality is off the charts. The first track, Wordless Chorus, has this 70's easy funk R&B groove going on. Track 2, Dondante, hits you with James' ghost-like high wail. There's something ethereal about his voice as it climbs into the high registers. Gideon, track 4, is a little musical masterpiece including symphonic arrangements with beating on a tymphonic drum I believe.
Track 7, Anytime, is the radio friendly indie superhit that comes off as My Morning Jacket doing a riff on Pela riffing on Arcade Fire who in turn is really riffing on My Morning Jacket. Complicated, I know, but follow me here. My Morning Jacket is a sound all its own, in a class all its own.
I don't doubt we'll be hearing much from them in the future as they forever evolve. I haven't dug into their 2008 release Evil Urges, which oddly enough I couldn't find on Amazon just now to stick in a link for youse guys. Evil Urges...ohh there it is...so sorry 'bout that. You won't want to miss a minute of Z, MMJ's real and they mean it. --mmw
joyfull noise
i was very pleased by the work that My Morning Jacket put out on this album. they are awesome thought, so i wasnt surprised! off the record would have to be one of my favorites on this one ; )
"Z" is a Keeper
For fans of MMJ, this album is a continuation of an impressive, enjoyable body of work from these Kentuckians. The reverb on the vocals really make the album for me. I'm looking forward to their new album coming out!
If Gram Parsons were an astronaut...
...he would have made a record that sounded like this. for me, Z holds the title belt for best record of 2005. James took a pretty big gamble w/ the spacey atmosphere on this one, and it payed off in spades, creating an utterly original sound that catapulted them from being a super-tight jam band to one of the most unique and exciting american bands out there right now. from beginning to end, there's not a single sub-par track. "what a wonderful man" sounds like "clouds taste metallic" era flaming lips, and "gideon" is the perfect vehicle for james' reverb-drenched vocals. my favorite song is "lay low;" it's one of those jams that keep making you push the repeat button. i couldn't imagine anyone w/ a modicum of good taste not enjoying Z.
I'm just not feeling it
Directed to this band after tasting some eclectic mixes of new folk, rock and jazz influences that also include some punk and post metal. With Z I like the songwriting but the singer just doesn't cut it, often droning on and then OUT and sounding sometimes like he is out of breath.
Does this guy smoke or something? A nice radiance within some songs but at times this is nothing more than a jam band that tries so hard to separate themselves from the other of their kind that they end up sounding like a cousin anyway.