My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (CD)

All Music Guide

For those who weren't convinced by Z's lefthand turns, Evil Urges cements My Morning Jacket's transformation from grizzled, reverbdrenched classic rockers to experimental, genrebending innovators. There's always been a slight disconnect between the band's image and sound; frontman Jim James once howled his melodies behind curtains of long hair while lashing at his Flying V guitar, looking like a Metallica roadie while sounding like Neil Young in an echo chamber. But 2008's Evil Urges with its diversions into funk and prog, its falsetto vocals, its explosive eclecticism is a different animal entirely, perhaps the furthest My Morning Jacket have ever sounded from the southern pyschedelia that launched them ten years previously. The bandmates look different, too, having trimmed their bushy beards and unruly hair for photos that grace the album sleeve. Physical appearances have little to do with this group's sound, but the cleanshaven look further challenges the world's perception of My ...Morning Jacket, a band that was once lumped into the same down 'n' dirty rock bin as the DriveBy Truckers and Kings of Leon. My Morning Jacket want to occupy their own orbit, and Evil Urges is as spacey as it gets.not a neopsychedelic oufit, an alt.country group, a jam band, or the contemporary torchbearers of southern rock roll. They're none of those things or perhaps they're all of those things, as Evil Urges offers the widest swath of musical fare in the My Morning Jacket catalog. There's rock roll ("Aluminum Park," "I'm Amazed"), country ("Sec Walkin'"), rootsy pop nuggets ("Two Halves"), ballads about sexy bookworms ("Librarian"), and the aforementioned trips into Funkytown. "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part II" concludes the album with eight minutes of kaleidoscopic sound, and Evil Urges ultimately ends the same way it began with a willingness to explore, to challenge, to poke and prod at My Morning Jacket's past work while creating something entirely new. - Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide Read more Less