My Morning Jacket
The Waterfall
(ATO/Capitol)
B-
As the LP’s title implies, My Morning’s Jacket’s The Waterfall should consist of more organic sounds than their previous studio entries. But the Louisville rockers never takes a bold leap in that direction with their seventh full-length album. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; ever since 2005’s Z, the band has rightfully been considered a force. New work should bring something a bit fresh, though, but for an act with such a prolifically creative output, The Waterfall feels more like a pool of standing water than a free-falling current.
In the album’s opening moments, My Morning Jacket’s trademarked waning, synthesized builds are largely absent, replaced with something almost danceable. The instrumentation, at least initially, feels like an excited pulse: Frequent electric riffs pound, and for the first time in any My Morning Jacket output, timing assumes the forefront. Jim James’ vocals, though not as lyrically strong as we’ve become accustomed, seem to work on double-time. Here James bears a closer resemblance to Billy Idol than his typical range, especially in most of “Believe” and the vast majority of “Compound Fracture.” But by about a third through The Waterfall, the James of old begins to reform.
As difficult as it feels to laud The Waterfall, you can’t condemn it for unoriginality. It’s hard to emulate James’ gentle call, closely trailed by a hawklike guitar performance. Likewise, keyboardist Bo Koster’s powerful undercurrent contends for My Morning Jacket’s timelessness, especially in tracks like “Big Decisions.” Like so many “southern rock” acts, a sense of regionality pervades throughout, in a way that feels like resting upon a throne of moss-covered stones atop the Arbuckle Mountains. Despite a few modern quirks, MMJ’s sound still puts forth an undeniable air of familiarity like a constant zephyr gliding through valleys and tussling the sternest of weeds.
Coherence among tracks has always been one of the band’s many fortés. Regardless of the initial change of pace, transitions occur seemingly without notice, and The Waterfall flows with a knack for arrangements that borders clairvoyance. Unfortunately, because of this tendency, very few tracks seem to shine far above the rest, and the mesh, though well assembled, never truly snags the ear. That said, My Morning Jacket has never been the ear-snagging type. The brief, speedy moments in The Waterfall suggest a band who, at least for a second, tried to put forth something explosive. Old habits die hard, of course, but fans of My Morning Jacket needn’t fret; The Waterfall provides several welcome additions to a fruitful musical corpus, but it won’t be the album to indoctrinate prospective Jacket-wearers, either.
