My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

This album is great. Do you need to hear anything more? I'm sure by now you've heard that MMJ is the new savior of contemporary rock, so I won't bore you with the details. Ok, at least not all of them.

To be honest, I still have not bought Z. I regret it still, but funds are tight and priorities have to made so I skipped over it in my MMJ collection and bought Evil Urges. However, after a brilliant spectacle like Evil Urges, I think I'll have to find the pennies in my couch to purchase Z.

Jim James' voice soars over each track in perfect harmony as the guitars float seamlessly through the songs, no matter how different they are. "I'm Amazed," the lead single and best track on the album, blends oddly with "Highly Suspicious," a growly, hard-banging song that diverges wildly from the usual "voice in a subway" sound of previous albums. Instead, it features James doing his best Prince impersonation.

The more traditional MMJ sounding "Sec Walkin'" is hauntingly beautiful and more of what you would expect from James. However, even this simple song leaves you wanting more in an early Wilco-like moment. The mellowed out "Smokin from Shootin" blends a nice Ryan Adams sound as James soulfully croons.

I put on Evil Urges to write this post and had almost finished when "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2" came on. It would have been a major oversight on my part if I hadn't included it here in some way. Easily a close second to "I'm Amazed," "Touch Me..." is a great track that gets you involved from start to finish. The Coldplay pop sound is there without the cheese and James speaks so honestly and emotionally that you just want him to let loose and scream by the end (which happens...sort of).

Evil Urges will definitely be in my crowded running for "Album of the Year" with its eclectic and progressive sound. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see them perform live someday because that is truly the test of a band's greatness. Until then, I'll rock out on my iPod and enjoy what I've got so far.

My Morning Jacket -
*I'm Amazed.mp3

*Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2.mp3

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