My Morning Jacket

Add Date: May 31 

Artist: My Morning Jacket 

Album: Circuital 

Label: ATO 

Genre: Rock 

Comments: The members of My Morning Jacket are aware, almost blissfully, about their potential to be divisive, especially given the diversity of their fan base. "We've always just done what we've done and tried to have fun with it and been stoked that we don't fit into any categories," frontman Jim James recently told The New York Times. "But it does get annoying sometimes. If there's a hippie twirling a baton in a field somewhere and we're getting too hard and too heavy, they get kind of bummed out. And if there's an indie-rocker, and we play more than 30 seconds of a guitar solo, he's like: 'Velvet Underground would've never done that. Oh, wait--yeah, they did.'"

Lighthearted sarcasm aside, My Morning Jacket is coming off what I'd consider a misstep in 2008's Evil Urges. Recorded in a New York studio, it went completely away from what has made this band really good, if not great: namely, the energy of their live shows. After all, while they've steadily built up their album sales, they've primarily established their reputation as a band that you just have to see in concert. In contrast to the last LP, then, Circuital was recorded in an old church gymnasium in the band's hometown of Louisville, and that setting seems much more suited to the My Morning Jacket's dynamic.

Overall, Circuital is a fine record. Try "First Light", "Outta My System" or the 7-minute title track for the band's trademark big-sounding rock and roll; go to any of the last three songs for folk-rock balladry; or even spin "Holdin On to Black Metal", a tune that's humorous all the way down to James' absurd, yet endearing, falsetto. Throughout the album, My Morning Jacket is masterfully all over the map; as usual, there's something here for hippie and hipster alike--and, assuredly, for everyone to complain about as well. I don't think the band will mind.