BLOWIN INDIE WIND

Author: [no author name found]

I was first introduced to My Morning Jacket with their third full-length "It Still Moves," which is the band's seminal album. I immediately loved the Kentucky 5-piece band. They had a big, classic southern rock sound that soared but never seemed to hit anything. For those of you who are into really obscure alt-country, think rock version of the Great Lake Swimmers. For those who are not, a mish-mash of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd - heavy on the Allman Brothers - thrown into a grain silo, gets pretty close to the idea as well.

That's why, when I first heard a track from their fourth album, "Z," I was a bit confused.

The album "Off the Record" relies on a hook-heavy chorus and a classic rock guitar line. My Morning Jacket sounded like it was pent up inside a studio and not echoing with the reverb that, at times, smothered "It Still Moves." Most apparent was how band leader Jim James sang with an earnest shout, and not the aerial vocals that floated throughout the previous album.

Apparently, not only was "It Still Moves" the band's most important album, it was also their most unique album. "Z" is a step back toward their earlier work, which was heavier on the rock aspect than the alt-country vibe that permeated their third album. To return to the previous analogy to which I am now tied, My Morning Jacket essentially kicked the Allman Brothers out of the silo.

"Z's" first track, "Wordless Chorus," perfectly serves as a kind of clichéd analogy for the album as a whole. The first thing you hear on the song is a heavy pulse from the keyboards before James' vocals and the drums jump in at a slow, plodding pace. It is not until the chorus­­ ­- which is incidentally wordless - that the song resembles the My Morning Jacket that I knew, or thought I knew.

And so goes the rest of "Z." When My Morning Jacket includes the spaciousness they etched out in "It Still Moves" with the dominant rock sound of this album, they achieve some undeniable greatness. Take "Gideon" for example, the third song on "Z," in which the band breaks out of the restraint they maintained throughout the first two songs. A simple guitar line is quickly joined by James' voice in its best soaring style. By the time the song erupts, you can't even remember when thunderous drums and second guitar slipped in, but at that point the band has achieved an enormous sound that you could easily imagine filling the stadium venues that U2 plays.

Gideon shows James' songwriting at its best and continues to do so through several other songs on the album, notably "Anytime" and "Lay Low." Unlike "Gideon," the former explodes almost immediately with dueling lead guitar lines, prominent rock piano, and James' voice pushed right to the very edge. "Lay Low" is a little more laid back. In fact, you could say that it sounds like a southern rock version of Elton John. This comparison is not as ridiculous as it sound. My Morning Jacket covered "Rocket Man" on a previous compilation.

"Tell me what has not been done/ I'll rush out and do it, or are we doin' it now?" James sings at one point in "Wordless Chorus," before drifting off into the chorus. My Morning Jacket does a lot that has not been done on "Z," and manages on a few songs to produce the kind of incredible American fusion of South, country, and rock that bands like Wilco - albeit in a different style - have never seemed to attain.