My Morning Jacket
The Tennessee Fire
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My Morning Jacket
The Tennessee Fire
Darla, 1999
RiYL: Neil Young, Jay Farrar, The Flaming Lips, Thom Yorke |
The Tennessee Fire, the first full-length release from the little-known Louisville band My Morning Jacket, falls somewhere between abasement recording and a professional studio production. If I interpret the cryptic liner notes correctly, the band and one or two of its friends recorded the album without assistance from a professional producer. The result is an album that blossoms with raw, dark, garage-band emotion, but is still recorded well enough to get the message across. The drums pound prominently in the mix, the guitars whine in the background and occasionally wheel to the front, and singer/songwriter Jim James's voice howls and wails with a ghostly presence, as if he is calling out to scare you and draw you into his world all at once.
The recording isn't the only thing home spun about this CD, the band itself is a loose-knit group of friends and relatives brought together by leader Jim James. As with any band whose members are close friends as well as band-mates, My Morning Jacket produces a sound filled with familiarity, brotherly love, and inside jokes. Their sound is mostly rock, with just enough country to keep them honest.
Now, back to Jim James and his otherworldly voice. MMJ is a great band, but they would only be an OK band if it wasn't for this amazing voice. Jim James reminds me other great singers like Neil Young (strained yet powerful) and Thom Yorke (injured yet soaring), but at the same time, he is unique. He draws you into his songs, and even when you can't make out the words, you know exactly what he's saying.
This album starts out strong with "Heartbreakin' Man," which features some catchy guitar work and excellent song construction (something that falls apart on some of the not-so-good songs on this disc). But despite the powerful start, the first half of this album has some very weak spots."They Ran" in particular always gets the 'ol skip-button treatment (hey, a song that starts with the line "someone stole my lighter, and where it goed was higher" is destined for failure).
However, about halfway through the album, My Morning Jacket really hits their mark, starting with "Evelyn Is Not Real", a song about a love too good to be true. This is followed by my favorite track on the album, "War Begun." The song is simple and not overly ambitious, but it seems that MMJ works best when simple. Not only is Mr. James in his finest form, the lyrics are great ("Stolen as the war begun, this time your soul is my one / I belong to a race of robots, drownin' out my one") and the song fades ou twith an perfectly placed flamenco-style guitar solo.
"The Dark" is another high point. It starts with a spacey introduction about lizards and gasoline before stomping into a chorus that I can't get enough of and just can't get out of my head. Despite the complaints I have about this album, it remains one of my more frequent listens. There's something about this band that has gotten inside me, and the high points are worth waiting through the lesser moments.
JAKE MORRILL |