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It Still Moves

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My Morning Jacket

 
It Still Moves
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Average: 4.5 (141 ratings)

The logical synthesis of the Flaming Lips’ lysergic fever dreams and Allman Brothers’ chops-flaunting excursions to the center of your mind.

  • We Say...

    Review by Corey duBrowa

    Reverb. Neil Young sucking down a joint while warbling about the lonely ladies of the Laurel Canyon. More reverb. The netherworld where the Black Crowes’ bulimic bad-ass boogie collides with Music from Big Pink. Still more reverb. Dave Gilmour on holiday in Ibiza, comfortably numb and obscured by clouds. The Church of the Sacred Reverb, led by your pastor, the Reverend Jim James. Glory to you, reverb.

    These are some first-blush reactions to My Morning Jacket’s third album and 2003 major-label debut, It Still Moves. Simply put: it’s the spacious sound of southern psychedelia; the logical synthesis of the Flaming Lips’ lysergic fever dreams and the Allman Brothers’ chops-flaunting excursions to the center of your mind (circa Eat a Peach) filtered through the country-boy-fer-life sensibilities of frontman Jim James, whose high/lonesome wail is bathed in so much sonic echo that it sometimes sounds like it was recorded down in his native Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave.

    For all the accomplishments represented on It Still Moves (including some of the best compositions of James’ career: the picture-perfect ballad “Golden,” the dreamlike standstill of “I Will Sing You Songs”), the album represented a breaking point with MMJ Mach I. James’ guitarist cousin Johnny Quaid and original keyboardist Danny Cash both left the band after its recording, clearing the way for the extraterrestrial explorations of 2005’s Z and the group’s next-phase admixture of not quite alt-country and not quite alt-rock. Until proven otherwise, It Still Moves is still their masterpiece.

  • They Say...

    Review by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

    It's a beautiful thing to know that Brian Wilson is still alive and well in the kingdom of indie rock. My Morning Jacket's third full-length effort, and first for the ATO/RCA venture label, is a step beyond the band's work for Darla. While the gorgeous amalgam of the Band's vision of country/Americana and Neil Young's blend of folk and rock are everywhere present, there is a new textural awareness evident on It Still Moves. Jim James' songwriting is tighter in structure, but his production sensibility is early-'70s Laurel Canyon, with some of the Grateful Dead's American Beauty tropes as well. Sounds like a mess, doesn't it? Well, it's not. Wearing your influences on your sleeve doesn't mean unoriginality. James is an original songwriter; he has worked hard to develop the gifts inherent in his lyric concerns and his ability to paint emotional landscapes with his melodies, and the payoff has never been greater. "Mahgeetah," with its Pet Sounds ambience and country-rock melody -- complete with fuzzed-out guitar solo -- is far more imaginative than anything Wilco ever pulled off by trying the same thing (which they do over and over ad nauseam). "Dancefloors," with its biting Telecaster lead line that echoes "Baby Don't Do It" and the Stray Gators' country majesty, is full of warmth, depth, and Levon Helm's soul. And "Golden," which is the third track in this opening triad, brings James' love of Tim Buckley and Fred Neil into the light. But all of these elements of construction are read through James' Kentucky and his unique melodic gift, where fragments becomes entire lines become songs with stunning bridges, achingly poetic lyrics, and a country boy's sense of whacked-out humor and tenderness (check out "One Big Holiday"). The horn arrangements on "Easy Morning Rebel" make the country shuffle into a near R&B tune with an old-timey stroll through a shambolic rhythm track. In all, My Morning Jacket may be a journey through the past, but it's also a solid step into something rock & roll has been missing for an awfully long time in the mainstream arena: melody, extremely catchy and well-written songs that aren't afraid of the mainstream, and a love of the great pop continuum that translates into something new.

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