Carrying it in my pocket. The language is maybe not mine (she is Quebecois so I think there is not the racial stigma there is in America with the word 'Jap' for example) but it is accurate enough. You may notice it is pretty even, with a slight leaning towards 'cons.' This is how I feel right now. Do you have a weigh-in? I am still compiling my list. I will be more forthcoming later.
So, I finally made myself sit through a whole 'My Morning Jacket' album. I know. I am going backwards in time musically. I started putting my ipod on random and it got me listening to songs I haven't heard since middle or high school, such as Modest Mouse or Radiohead. All I have to do is listen to some Shins, The Strokes, Elliot Smith and dust off my vinyls of all the music I used to listen to...The Who, David Bowie, Rolling Stones and The Beatles...
I went into a high school reverie there. Sorry. It was way before I discovered hip-hop. Though to be fair to me, I did listen to The Roots and Erykah Badu.
Anyway, so I listened to 'Z,' which I have had forever but never really made it all the way through. I bought it when I was going through my Sunny Day Real Estate and Conor Oberst phase. A phase I think many young ladies have to go through, unfortunately.
'Z' is pretty typical of the genre and overall is extremely hit or miss as a musical endeavor. This album was supposedly meant to be their seminal record (I kept trying not to write 'seminal release' or use in any way shape or form the word 'seed,' such as 'It is meant to be their seminal release and their seed of creativity was supposedly meant to germinate during the making of this record and come to full bloom...' but I really couldn't help sharing a little of how far down the line I played with semen/seed puns.) where My Morning Jacket's creativity was to merge finally with cleaner production allowing their true potency to come to fruition (I really couldn't help myself).
However, I am not buying it.
I found most of their songs' epic length to be difficult and lacking the musical vision that is necessary to sustain an 8 minute song. It is rare when listing to alt-pop I am willing to sit through a song that is that long unless there is enough musicianship and the song needs the time to explore fully the concept the band is playing with. I found that there just wasn't enough there in a lot of the songs to warrant continuing past the 4 minute mark and that indeed a compression might have made the songs ultimately better. I will say that in 'Z' they do stray a lot more from the odd country twanginess of some of their earlier songs, though it is still present, and I greatly prefer when they marry fully to the indie-ness. Jim James' voice is also better when he doesn't try to affect the country-music sound and gives a more straightforward showcase of his actual vocal talents, which include quite a range and a falsetto that is at times quite impressive.
What is missing from this album is the risk-taking. My Morning Jacket has usually played it safe and the reason I think this album gets more attention is because this is the first time they really changed up their sound. I appreciate the direction they are taking but it is like they took me to the brink and then we didn't even look over the edge. Where are the rhythms? Where are the more complicated riffs? I find that when they are at the most strange, I find them the most rewarding. I do not think this album will be in my regular rotation but there is one song that I find myself a bit mezmerized by and it will be--the bizzare and appropriately titled 'Into the Woods:'
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