Home > Louisville Music > CD Review > My Morning Jacket, 'Evil Urges'

Backstory: Jim James and My Morning Jacket emerged from Kentucky's highly fertile music scene—the same that birthed post-rock pioneers like Slint as well as bluegrass icons like Bill Monroe—at the start of the new century. Five full-length efforts later, they have garnered acclaim from all corners of the critical spectrum and the unofficial title of best live band on Earth. Along the way, they've set the table for jam bands looking to successfully blend country, rock, electronic music and psychedelia.

Why you should care: James and crew are all about mixing and matching influence and style, expectation and performance; their earlier studio efforts "It Still Moves" and "Z" seamlessly forged what used to be disparate styles and approaches. And while "Evil Urges" doesn't match up to those hearty efforts, it's still quite the musical mindwipe.

Verdict: It's hard to tell that My Morning Jacket is a rock band on "Evil Urges." They come off sounding more like pop funketeers on the Prince clone "Highly Suspicious" or Lenny Kravitz on the angular title track. Sure, the stadium rock returns on the more sprawling hybrid anthems like "I'm Amazed," "Remnants" and "Aluminum Park," and the poignant high lonesome of "Sec Walkin'" and "Librarian" sounds like it hopped right out of a time-traveling tractor from the folkie '70s. But the digital atmospheres of "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream" and "Smokin From Shootin" send a clear signal that My Morning Jacket is one Americana roots lifer looking to go, like Wilco before it, back to the future.

X-Factor: The band performed in the Cameron Crowe film "Elizabethtown" under the pseudonym Ruckus.

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