My Morning Jacket Feva': "Circuital"

If I ever decide to throw in the gloves for this journalism thing, I'm going to follow a formula that I just concocted now, so bear with me. First, I'm going get the band back together (my great high school band, that is), and we're going to play a bunch of shows on the east coast and down south. We eventually play so many shows and get so much critical acclaim from our first three albums, that we disappear as a collective from the limelight for awhile. We experiment with numerous drugs, find an abandoned cabin in the smoky hills of Appalachia, write songs in front of a fire place with an acoustic guitar, and come out with the album of our lives...then we get to be old farts and start climbing coconut trees in Fiji and almost die. But I forgot to mention: we cannot be killed by conventional weapons.

For my Kentucky rock heroes My Morning Jacket, the stereotypical rock star life is not that of "look at me" stardom, "let me sulk with my inner personal problems no one can understand" type thing. These guys are arguably the best rock band of our generation for numerous reasons. They will never do what I just mentioned, their integrity for their songs is incalculable, and their demeanor is respectful to who came before them, yet they realize that there is still a long road to be paved--of which they'll pave that shit with a golden steamroller.

In anticipation for their upcoming album, Circuital, here is the title track of the same name. Hearing "Circuital" is a breath of fresh air. For a band like MMJ to pop out into the music stratosphere once again after largely being out of it for awhile is exciting, the most excited I've been for an album this year (Sorry, Strokes--not doing it for me). After listening, I texted Greg, saying it was pure, good 'ol MMJ. The production is glistening and full, thanks in part to the recording process taking place in the back room of an old Kentucky Church. MMJ are a band that does no wrong in my book. Whether Circuital is amazing or falls short, Jim James and crew have the purest of intentions to blow the shit out of your ears and then wipe everything up with the tears of joy that you have just shed.



--Mike