“Evil Urges“
from the album Evil Urges
2008
iTunes
There’s no turning back after Z for My Morning Jacket, at least based on the title track from the Kentuckians’ forthcoming Evil Urges. With critics’ favorites like Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes now trafficking in the kind of reverb-drenched moonshine that Jim James & Co. used to brew up in staggeringly strong doses, My Morning Jacket opt not to revisit the down-home Southern psych-rock of 2003’s It Still Moves or 2001’s At Dawn on “Evil Urges,“ instead pressing on with the R&B falsetto, non-guitar instrumentation, and lightly reggae-tinged rhythms of the last album. Before you get all worried, though: The dueling guitars are back, with a definite Allman Brothers-ish feel. But there’s also grand orchestration and sinister, gurgling electronics, while James’ vocal is more Prince than Palace. “I’m ready for it now,” he repeats in an arms-swaying, revival-meeting midsection, and just when you think the song is about to end at three minutes, the guitars fire up again.