My Morning Jacket Evil Urges by: Justin Pearsall Mon:26-May-08 Label: ATO Year: 2008 WB rating 74 out of 100

Following up Z, Metacritic’s equal-highest polling album of 2005, was never going to be easy for My Morning Jacket. Critical commendation and increased profile aside, the band essentially remade themselves, simultaneously producing that rare record: one that challenges the notions of ‘it’s all been done before’ in a way that only a handful of bands of this generation have been able to do.

Perhaps inevitably then, Evil Urges struggles to consistently match the intensity and institution of Z. In fact, the band sound like a My Morning Jacket that have largely sidestepped the legacy of their last great move: hamming up the humour that gave weight and character to Z’s emotion, ploughing through soft Americana rock and briefly revisiting the innovation of their last release.

Of this three-headed approach by far the most successful material is that which confronts and continues the journey of their last work. Album opener and lead single ‘Evil Urges’ sets the bar exceedingly high. Built around the same spatial atmospherics and buoyant rhythms that propelled Z’s earlier tracks, Jim James’ vocals float over the soulful groove with a sultriness that resonates with Prince-like breathiness. The song floats along this path until its wildly divergent bridge of riff-driven rock, eventually landing safely on its feet in an extended chorus. The flawless pairing of the two genres is the bold next step that many – this writer included – hoped the band would continue on Evil Urges, and with this opener, the spaced out, metronomic pop of ‘Touch Me, I’m going to Scream Part One’, and the dynamic ‘Librarian’, it seemed that MMJ were accepting this challenge head on.

But, in direct contrast to the consistent brilliance of Z, too often Evil Urges sways moodily, as if the pressures of expectation have created an unwanted bipolar disorder in the intentions of the band. ‘Highly Suspicious’ is the kind of hyperbolic, sexed-up rock piece that lacks the realness of the typical MMJ sound. The dumb rock of ‘Aluminium Park’ and ‘Remnants’ hardly fares any better. Whereas on Z, rock ‘n’ roll meant the boisterous ‘What a Wonderful Man He Was’ or the reggae-infused ‘Off The Record’, Evil Urges employs that drunken uncle tactic of talking loudly about very little to get attention. The result is sound-alike, copy-cat homogeneity that is well below the band’s potential.

Coupling these mistakes with the lightweight country rock of ‘I’m Amazed’, ‘Sec Walkin’ and ‘Two Halves’ further weakens MMJ’s identity. The generic and tongue-in-cheek replication of such a well-worn style nullifies the passion and innovation that made them a great band in the first place. For some, the obvious intent for diversity may be enough but personally these stylistic jumps and attempts at shit-eating humour hamper the album’s mood and playback value considerably.

While it is perhaps unfair to place My Morning Jacket’s new album in such direct juxtaposition with their last, it is also the most obvious and natural thing to do. In such a comparison Evil Urges falls hugely short of its predecessor. And while this review has been exceedingly critical on the consistency and vision behind Evil Urges, as a standalone record there are enough moments of typical MMJ output to ensure that it is a better-than-average release. The problem with this, of course, is that MMJ have proved that they are a band capable of producing so much more. And for those aware of this fact, it’s hard not to feel a crushing sense of disappointment in the scattered reality of Evil Urges.