CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Evil Urges

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date June 10, 2008
I've had this album for a couple weeks now, and I can't stop listening to it. I'm finding that it has a lot more staying power for me than most albums seem to, due in large part to the narrative strain that runs through it as much as the genre-blending music itself. Obviously everyone who listens to an album like this will have a somewhat different response to it, but here are some my initial impressions of it:

The first song plays like a mission statement for the album, offering the fairly typical secularist ethical perspective that what some call "evil urges" are really perfectly natural and simply "a part of the human way", that "ain't evil if (they) ain't hurting anybody". The narrator (who seems to be an older version of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Z

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date October 04, 2005
There's something that happens to good and interesting bands, well they change. For some bands it just takes sheer boredom, boredom with their signature sound, for some it takes a spirit of creativity and experimentalism, and for some it takes tragedy. Louisville, Kentucky's Jim James, and his fellow daybreak jackets, experience a little bit of turmoil and tragedy leading up to 2005's release of Z, My Morning Jacket's (as best as I can come up with) fourth studio album.

Leading up to Jacket's Z, founding band member, Johnny Quaid (no relation to Dennis), and guitarist departed the band along with the keyboardist Danny Cash. The question is out there, will Quaid and Cash someday become the infamous 5th Beatles? I'll answer that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

At Dawn

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date June 05, 2001
It took a while for me to "get" My Morning Jacket. But now that I finally figured out that Jim James is the new archangel of American rock, I've been working my way backwards through their studio work to discover what gems have yet to shine through my ears and tickle the musical capacitors in my brain.

With some bands, looking into the past can be a hazardous course. But the MMJ catalog proves to be an intriguing, if inconsistent, study in songwriting development with very few bumps in the road.

At Dawn is perhaps one of the band's most underrated albums (although the reviewers here seem to share my enthusiasm), but the fact is it may be one of the best examples of their shape shifting between dramatic, acoustic Americana ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

It Still Moves

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date September 09, 2003
Ya know this somehow reminds me of the Screaming Trees when they were coming up. A little Red House painters/Sun Kil-Moon as well. The album is low-fi, perhaps partially reminding me of early Screaming Trees studio efforts.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

The Tennessee Fire

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date July 13, 1999
It took me awhile to get into this album. I'm not sure just how many times I listened to it before its brilliance fully emerged, but I do know that these songs feel like a part of myself that someone else is singing. Whether or not the average listener experiences a similar resonance, the authenticity of these humbly beautiful songs is bound to strike a cord. Hands down- My Morning Jacket's best album!

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Acoustic Citsuoca: Live at the Startime Pavilion

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date May 04, 2004
While this live performance has only a limited number of cuts, they are of high quality. The guitar selections are outstanding and provide a lot of great harmony and quality acoustics.

My Morning Jacket is a sleeper group that can whip a crowd into a frenzy with great intensity on their guitar solo's and a lot of energy.

They remind one of the storied past of true rock and roll.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Chapter 1 The Sandworm Cometh: Early Recordings

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date November 23, 2004
I love MMJ. They are one of the best and most underrated bands out there. This is a collection of their early stuff (95-97). Some of the recording quality is a little ruff but that is so easily overlooked when the songs are as amazing as they are. If you are a fan than you must buy this album, along with Vol. 2 of this collection.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Early Recordings, Chapter 2: Learning

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date November 23, 2004
This album, although it's not really an album in its truest sense, is very fun to listen to because you can't help but notice how much fun the band had in recording and arranging this work. First of all, you've got several interesting covers: "Tyrone" from Erica Badu, "Why don't u love me" from Hank Williams (pretty sure it's Hank), "Dream a Little Dream of me," "West End Girls," and "Take my breath away." That right there tells ya that these guys choose to cover all kinds of stuff. And they also like to amuse themselves by throwing in a funny sound bite from "Goose" and "Maverick" at the end of "take my..." Just read the liner notes. Funny stuff.

But really, the album is more beautiful than it is humorous. "Dream a little dream of me" is ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Chocolate & Ice

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date April 16, 2002
One of my morning jacket's most inconsistent and weird recordings to date, "Chocolate and Ice" runs as long as a strokes album. The unfortunate thing is Jim James' muse led him to record a 24 minute "Cobra" that could have been sliced up into at least three or four tracks by itself. But, that's the thing with this band. They are very creative. Therefore they will follow their many muses down long winding paths that can lead to weird places; some incredibly beautiful, others weird, but they always manage to make it interesting. That goes for track 5, "Holy" where James voice switches from reverb and non-reverb, I guess, just for the experimental fun of it all. If you're interested in that kind of weird experimental stuff then this album is for you. Because ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Z

by: My Morning Jacket

Release Date October 04, 2005
There's something that happens to good and interesting bands, well they change. For some bands it just takes sheer boredom, boredom with their signature sound, for some it takes a spirit of creativity and experimentalism, and for some it takes tragedy. Louisville, Kentucky's Jim James, and his fellow daybreak jackets, experience a little bit of turmoil and tragedy leading up to 2005's release of Z, My Morning Jacket's (as best as I can come up with) fourth studio album.

Leading up to Jacket's Z, founding band member, Johnny Quaid (no relation to Dennis), and guitarist departed the band along with the keyboardist Danny Cash. The question is out there, will Quaid and Cash someday become the infamous 5th Beatles? I'll answer that one now, nope, neither ... Read More: