My Morning Jacket are more focused on their tenth album “Is.” Their cosmic meanderings are channelled into concise melodies and emotional energy. They are even working with a experienced producer for the first time in Brendan O’Brien who has worked with Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen.
The band’s leader Jim James says “All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is one of the most beautiful things about music—that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.”
The wig-out psychedelic songs are still here but run-times are much shorter than past albums, leaving room for the jamming to happen live on-stage and giving them more songs to work with.
There is a great balance between what the band is known for, James’ reverb drenched vocals over trippy guitar arrangements and the flowing juices of their 21st century southern rock stomps. James says the album is the band existing in the now, “there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is”