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It Still Moves
11/11/2003 3:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef
Kentucky colonels My Morning Jacket meet at the crossroads of Gram Parsons and Crazy Horse, with a brief detour through wasted ambition at the house of the rising sun. Playing as if from a galaxy-traveling time capsule, My Morning Jacket kick hard soul over Stax brass on one tune, then go all reverb-country-crazy in another, generally coasting along on a bed of liquor and happy dissonance elsewhere. Producer-writer Jim James's vocals wobble between keys like a drunken toddler navigating a highwire, but it's all part of this band's weird charm. "People always told me bars were dark and lonely," Jim sings on "Golden," as the song carries you away on a Irish jig and sleek steel guitars and finally ends in a shower of Pet Sounds-style vocal harmony. "Masterplan" turns up the Crazy Horse meter, and "I Will Sing You Songs" is a slow drag of rolling guitars and dream sonics. Sure, My Morning Jacket sounds like second-rate Neil Young at times, but when the grand old man doesn't sound much like himself anymore it's nice to wonder, "What if?"
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