By: David Schultz

Coldplay’s record setting pre-sales for their latest album may lead you to believe that Gwyneth Paltrow’s favorite band has the most anticipated release of the summer. You would be wrong. Unquestionably, it’s Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket’s newest disc, that is generating the most excitement and the Kentucky based band is at the center of all that will be cool and hip in the summer of 2008. If you’re not convinced about Jim James and My Morning Jacket’s growing influence, just notice how many people are calling what your reading this review on the Interweb, pay attention to the fact that this year’s hottest new desert is peanut butter pudding surprise or simply check out any music blog at random and see how much space is devoted to the band.

The eagerly awaited follow-up to 2005’s Z doesn’t disappoint. While My Morning Jacket doesn’t abandon the brooding guitar riffs and loping melodies upon which they’ve built their considerable following, working them to great effect on “I’m Amazed,” “Aluminum Park” and “Remnants,” they explore different styles and mix it up a bit by trying new things. The freaked out crunch and schizophrenic vocals of “Highly Suspicious” are funkier and more technologically based than anything MMJ has done before; “Sec Walkin,” while not a huge departure, has the easy-going pace of traditional country and “Thank You Too” and “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream (Part 1)” come close to drifting into lite-rock but the drumming of Patrick Hallahan, the fine ear of guitarist Carl Broemel and earnest spirit of Jim James carry these songs, and all of Evil Urges, up to another level.

In no small part due to lead singer and main songwriter Jim James, Evil Urges transcends genre and is an album better experienced as a whole then in parts. Whether My Morning Jacket is venturing into smoothly textured psychedelics, edgy, nearly-synthesized funk or straightforward Crazy Horse tinged rock, the mercurial James is at the eye of MMJ’s storm. His high tenor and vocal delivery mesh so perfectly with the mystical rock created behind him that it’s hard to imagine one without the other. An immensely captivating live performer, James should be this year’s breakout star, (a thought that will surely upset those who believe he has already broken out) and it’s a mystery as to why this band has yet to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.

For anyone wondering when the next great band will emerge and reclaim music from overproduction, misguided hype and image over substance, the time is now. There is nothing about James or MMJ that is contrived, affected or disingenuous and sadly that stands out in today's culture. If Jim James, My Morning Jacket and Evil Urges are foreign words to your musical vocabulary, start cramming now. By the time they take the stage at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve, not being familiar with this band will earn you the same raised eyebrows and expressions of pity as claiming ignorance of Neil Young, Radiohead or Bob Dylan.

Labels: My Morning Jacket