If you're a My Morning Jacket fan, none of this information is probably news to you. Nonetheless, I'll humor myself by announcing MMJ finally officially released their long-awaited follow-up to Z on Tuesday. And though the band continues to broaden its musical palate, building on Z's experimentation with studio effects, Evil Urges ultimately takes several steps in rather curious directions. That is not at all to say that the results are bad, just a wee bit unexpected. Some of the new songs ("Highly Suspicious" being the most obvious culprit) are bound to alienate a number of southern-rock and jam-band fans who got on board with albums like At Dawn and It Still Moves, the latter of which is distinct for being drenched in reverb and having been recorded in a corn silo. The point is that there are is very little reverb, probably no corn silo consideration, and basically nothing outside of genuine musical ingenuity tying Evil Urges to any MMJ albums prior to Z. Hell, the guys even got fresh haircuts for the album artwork, and I gotta say that Jim James cleans up nice for a guy that was once the spitting image of Cousin It from the Addams Family (don't believe me, check him out on Conan O' Brien a few years back). With all that said, the bottom line is that if you're willing to be open-minded and take a chance on a great band with a newly embraced penchant for genre-bending, than you probably won't be disappointed with the new album. And while Evil Urges is not quite as accessible as Z, you have to respect a so-called "southern-rock" band that has the guff to intermittently indulge itself in Prince-like falsetto cooing and futuristic prog-rock electronic freak-outs.
For a taste of the new record, check out a few of my choice cuts below:
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