My Morning Jacket (The New Studio Album)

Why is My Morning Jacket's 9th album self-titled? We talked about this, therefore i reject it. Bottle (that's me) officially christens this album The New Studio Album. 

Let's play a game. It's not exactly Judge A Book By Its Cover, more like What Am I Supposed To Think?  We'll take critical descriptions, my own naive readings, and my first listen, and see if i'm even remotely close. 2 out of the 3 are completely new to me, so i'll only be pretending 33.333% of the time. As baseball batting averages go, that's pretty great. Meatloaf is apparently cancelled from performing in public because he can't remember the lyrics anymore, so we can't use that reference. Can you guys and gals all get together and agree to cancel something that actually matters? You get paid to write blog posts, i don't. Seems like you could use that platform for practically anything, rather than the ad copy you currently produce. If you think my typos are bad.... 

So, i'm told My Morning Jacket hadn't made an album since 2015, and this was like a quarantine album where they reimagined themselves as a jam band instead of whatever they actually are. Pretty good according to what i read, but that no basis for comparison thing is brick-walling the panorama from where i'm standing. Let's dig deep and see what i've got. 

Is this the "omg he's such a deep, emotional, musical genius in touch with the universal breathing, writes long drawn out guitar based soundscapes and occasionally sings in falsetto like Bon Iver, American Dad did an entire episode where Stan falls in love with them" band, or is this the Irish Alternative Rock band My Bloody Valentine who i already like? The first one? Ok, ok, can't really pull off not knowing the difference, can i? At least i have no idea what they actually sound like, so that part's true. And a wikipediaing we shall go. 

Indie, art, psych, alt, Southern, jam, Americana. Whew, that's quite the unhelpful list of everything, isn't it? If i didn't know better, I'd say they play whatever they feel like at the moment. We'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt and say they defer to the concept itself, since they're primarily known as a live band. Makes sense to just jam when you can't tour, at least. Plus there's the whole "acoustic side project that really took off" mythos about the band as a whole, and that's a grab bag of who knows what in itself. So what's the artwork and lyrics and stuff do for us? 

Well, it's a double album, so vinyl was not the originally intended medium. Do these guys have a habit of wasting exorbitant amounts of studio time? Yes, yes apparently that's a thing they do. So there's definitely some studio stuff going on on these songs. Electronics, noise, silly panning, something not straight-up rock will be here, even if i don't know what. 

I haven't heard the single Regularly Scheduled Programming, but that's clearly sarcasm for "back to normal." I'm going to go way out on a limb and say somewhere in here is the mention of medicating our problems, because my goodness are we a drug-centric culture. I could be wrong, but this is going to be borderline 90s Alt-Rock throwback type stuff, even if it doesn't immediately sound like it. 

The artwork is pure silly psychedelic nonsense. Not anything different or interesting inside the gatefold, it's just that long of an album. I'm supposed to interpret that as profundity, because that's the marketing message behind the texture and lack of contextual information: "this is deep, and if you don't get it then you're a poser." Not so much the band saying that, but that's the message being transmitted. [Voluptuous whisper] Timeless, Visceral, Important: Dick's Sporting Goods. 

That was fun, let's give it a whirl. Record 1 is a muddy purple color. Sorry, "violet." I freakin' hate pointlessly colored vinyl just because you can "honestly" call it "limited." Anywho, here we go. 

Oh, ok, so yeah those genre tags are real. Lead off single in turtle tempo 6/8 with aforementioned LCD Soundsystem synths. Not quite Spoon level cacophony, but in the parking lot of that ballpark. Told you he'd mention "prescriptions and over the counter drugs." I'm hearing a "random crap" album, but it's only the first 30 seconds, and it's a "random crap" concept so i'm good. Proceed. 

I like the track 2 pick me up, but i'm a little confused by the Tears for Fears vibes. 

Yes, it's better in color, but i'm wondering why they don't get compared to Wilco more often. I guess i could take it back about the vinyl, but it's totally up the nose not across it. What i'm saying is if "everything sounds better in color" on purple and yellow is as sophisticated as the gimmick gets, then meh. And now i'm hearing Tool's Lateralus. Thanks, Fibonacci numbers. That shimmery orchestral section before the final chorus is gorgeous though. 

Now as we switch to side 2, the hole is too small. It's annoying having to pry it off the table and actually push it back down. You're making me work too hard. 

Ooh, that electric piano on Least Expected. Delicious. 

Side 3. Ain't nobody buying records no more. Except me, i buy a crap ton of 'em. 

There's no denying it, this is completely enjoyable. Love Love Love is a tad corny for me personally, but so? I think it's fair to say that this album is like the hipster wild west cosplay version of Pink Floyd. Thirsty Thursday at the Westworld saloon. That's not a criticism at all, it's just how it sounds. There is something a bit timeless about it, probably because there's a little bit of everything. Nononono, i know what it sounds like, it sounds like a not at all funny Church of the Cosmic Skull album. It has the Gospel background singers, the guitar solos, the synths, whole works. Yeah, there's not a word for it, but it's the 3rd-gen unironic reclaiming of the 2nd-gen British spoof of the original blend of Southern style Psych-Rock. 

Is that what they were going for? Regardless, i absolutely love it. I could totally listen to it on repeat in digital format. It's not a bad vinyl listening experience either. Absolutely bizarre to be writing this review at 6am while it's somehow a rainy Autumn afternoon outside, but it's everything all the time now so i don't know why i expected anything less. 

Like i said, i don't have their previous albums in my head to foil it, this is just a great Rock album from start to finish. Lots of memorable hooks, lots of dreamy meandering soundscapes, a couple tastefully trashy guitar solos, smooth but intimately human vocals. Amazingly enough, a double album of long tracks that just edges over the hour mark doesn't really feel so long at all. Good stuff.

Chemtrails