My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall
(ATO Records)
The sunny and spirited seventh record from My Morning Jacket is the closest thing the band has ever recorded to a summer road album. The Waterfall is a bright distillation of some of the group’s signature trappings, and it hums and thrums with playful, thick-blooded country-rock anthems streaked with psychedelic riffs and spiraling guitar solos.
For this Nashville outfit, these quirky stylings wear like a well-loved set of clothes. But something is different this time around. It’s not that The Waterfall reinvents the wheel — longtime fans will get the feeling they’ve hiked through most of this landscape before. And Frontman Jim James’s voice — rough, silky, and incredibly versatile — remains the band’s heart and soul.
Instead, the band — which released its first album in 1999 and has frontlined music festival stages ever since — has done some spring cleaning. They’ve cleared the attic of some baggage not worth brooding over, and they’ve polished this cohesive new 10-song set with smart arrangements and layers of sound. It’s the first My Morning Jacket album you’ll want to play in the daytime with the car windows rolled down.
This time around, James is soaking in the sunlight. On the power-rock foot-stomper “Believe (Nobody Knows),” he howls a joyous ode to finding faith wherever you can get it. The affirmations continue on “Compound Fracture,” a shining homage to ’70s pop. Happy? Yes. Radio-friendly? More than ever. But surprises burble up constantly here. “Spring (Among the Living),” the album’s sublime centerpiece, is an avalanche of electric guitar, clattering percussion, and surges of brass.
The rollicking single “Big Decisions” — maybe the year’s more exuberant break-up song — is quintessential MMJ. The Waterfall carries you through moments of grandeur, then tucks you in when it’s over — like a good road trip should.•
