Rating:

My Morning Jacket’s Z isn’t really a perfect record by almost anyone’s standards. But it is very, very good. If you kind of mash The Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Mercury Rev, and Lynyrd Skynyrd into one band, you’d get something close to Z. Vocalist Jim James’ voice occasionally sounds like Chris Martin’s, sometimes Wayne Coyne’s. The Skynyrd reference is more to point out that guitars are very important to the sound of My Morning Jacket, and there are plentiful tastefully executed guitar solos on the record. Through it all, though, the music is rooted in James’ pop songwriting sensibilities, which have served him well. The production is also quite impressive, as it’s simple but perfectly suited to the record. And while My Morning Jacket has its flaws on Z, insincerity is not one of them, making this their best performance, and one of the best albums of the year.

Buy album

– Kevin

This 45-beetsreview was posted on October 30th, 2005. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.