MY MORNING JACKET
Z
Badman
· Not much country, but there’s a whole lot of quality on this album.
Much has changed in the world of My Morning Jacket. Not only has the band lost two members since their last album, they’ve also overhauled their sound. Although Jim James’s honeyed falsetto remains at the centre of the songs, the music itself has ditched much of the reverb-drenched earthiness of their past albums in favour of a much more precise, adventurous sound not unlike Brian Wilson’s lush mid-’60s productions with The Beach Boys.
"Wordless Chorus" is one of MMJ’s best songs yet, with James’s impassioned wail saying more than words ever could. From there, the album moves from the ska-inflected riff of "Off the Record" (complete with jazzy outro) to the circus waltz of "Into the Woods" to songs that retain the band’s trademark countrified style while still being consistent with their new sound. Z is a mature, beautiful and finely crafted record that proves that "pop" and "musical ambition" need not be mutually exclusive terms.
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