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Avg: 3.5 (55 ratings)
- Date Released: June 10, 2008
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Rough Trade / Beggars Group
MMJ sing the body ecstatic.
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We Say...
The two tracks that bookend My Morning Jacket’s fifth album attest to that centuries-old Christian body/soul divide that sits at the root of good church folk like Jim James and his cohorts. On the one hand, there’s “Evil Urges,” the other, “Good Intentions,” and MMJ know as well as anybody that hell is paved with both of them — meaning the middle path is best. If anything, My Morning Jacket strike a precarious balance on Evil Urges, being still familiar to longtime fans while also reaching for extremes in their sound.
The opening title track swoops in like something beamed down from Radiohead’s OK Computer, anthemic guitars amid spacy keyboard washes, as the conflicted James realizes that “It ain’t evil, baby, if it ain’t hurting anybody.” Much like another Kentuckian, Will Oldham, James couples his choirboy exterior with the animal desires that lurk beneath, mining the fertile fold where the two meet. Or, simply put, James finally digs that the closest one can get to heaven is through some fine fucking. He fantasizes about a “Librarian” hiding “the beauty the Good Lord put there” and aims to help her to find that heaven within. And, with an orgasmic yowl, he looses heaps of sexual frustration on the sublime disco(!) workout “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2.”
Such lower-half excursions aren’t always divine though; “Highly Suspicious” will make-or-break Urges for a lot of fans. It’s an odd amalgam of canned '80s keytar, complete with a non-sequitur about “peanut butter pudding surprise” and bolstered by James’s highest falsetto and most robo-baritone. If anything, it sounds like the band’s attempt to do Brazilian funk carioca, complete with “Wild Thing” guitar lick. Thankfully, they just as easily swoop back into the familiar soft-rock beatitude of “Thank You Too!” and the demur keen of “Sec Walkin.’” Here, James gauges his every step carefully, exulting in earthly delights around him. Yet all is not well, as he also notes the “demon eyes are watching everywhere.” And so the dark and light forces continue their push and pull. -
They Say...
For those who weren't convinced by Z's left-hand turns, Evil Urges cements My Morning Jacket's transformation from grizzled, reverb-drenched classic rockers to experimental, genre-bending innovators. There's always been a slight disconnect between the band's image and sound; frontman Jim James once howled his melodies behind curtains of long hair while lashing at his Flying V guitar, looking like a Metallica roadie while sounding like Neil Young in an echo chamber. But 2008's Evil Urges -- with its diversions into funk and prog, its falsetto vocals, its eclecticism -- is a different animal entirely, perhaps the furthest My Morning Jacket have ever sounded from the Southern psychedelia that launched them ten years prior. The bandmates look different, too, having trimmed their bushy beards and unruly hair for the photos that grace the album sleeve. Physical appearances may have little to do with this group's sound, but the clean-shaven look further challenges the world's perception of My Morning Jacket, a band that was once lumped into the same down 'n' dirty rock bin as the Drive-By Truckers and Kings of Leon. The members of My Morning Jacket now want to occupy their own orbit, and Evil Urges is as spacy as it gets. "Evil Urges," "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 1," and "Highly Suspicious" comprise the opening lineup, which jumpstarts the album with 13 minutes of sexy, tripped-out electro-funk. James slips into a falsetto during the title track, his voice clear and reverb-free as he coos in a bedroom whisper. "Touch Me" bubbles with interstellar keyboard effects and harmonies -- for the stoner contingent of MMJ's audience, this is the logical place to fire up the bong -- while "Highly Suspicious" delivers the album's biggest shocker, mixing James' best Prince impression with bizarre lyrics ("Tapping your lines, peanut butter pudding surprise!") and bursts of laugher. It's the kind of polarizing song that fans will either love or loathe, and given its prominent spot in the track list -- batting third, a spot usually reserved for heavy-hitters -- it's obviously meant to elicit a strong reaction. But that seems to be the crux of Evil Urges; after years of being shoehorned into various genres, My Morning Jacket have put their collective foot down, insisting that they're not a neo-psychedelic outfit, an alt-country group, a jam band, or the contemporary torchbearers of Southern rock & roll. They're none of those things -- or perhaps they're all of those things, as Evil Urges offers the widest swath of musical fare in the My Morning Jacket catalog. There's rock & roll ("Aluminum Park," "I'm Amazed"), country ("Sec Walkin'"), rootsy pop nuggets ("Two Halves"), ballads about sexy bookworms ("Librarian"), and the aforementioned trips into Funkytown. "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 2" concludes the album with eight minutes of kaleidoscopic sound, and Evil Urges ultimately ends the same way it began -- with a willingness to explore, to challenge, to poke and prod at My Morning Jacket's past work while creating something new.
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| 01. |  |
Evil Urges |
5:11 |
|
| 02. | |
Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt 1 |
3:49 |
|
| 03. | |
Highly Suspicious |
3:04 |
|
| 04. | |
I’m Amazed |
4:33 |
|
| 05. | |
Thank You Too! |
4:26 |
|
| 06. | |
Sec Walkin |
3:35 |
|
| 07. | |
Two Halves |
2:33 |
|
| 08. | |
Librarian |
4:16 |
|
| 09. | |
Look At You |
3:27 |
|
| 10. | |
Aluminum Park |
3:56 |
|
| 11. | |
Remnants |
3:01 |
|
| 12. | |
Smokin From Shootin |
5:04 |
|
| 13. | |
Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2 |
8:12 |
|
| 14. |
Good Intentions |
0:04 |
|
|
14 Total Tracks, 55:11 Total Length
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Credits
- Michael Brauer - Mixing // Gary Burden - Art Direction // Gary Burden - Design // David Campbell - String Arrangements // Joe Chiccarelli - Producer // Bob Ludwig - Mastering // Andy Taub - Assistant // Art Smith - Drum Technician // William Paden Hensley - Assistant // Jenice Heo - Art Direction // Jenice Heo - Design // Autumn DeWilde - Photography // Jim James - Producer // Jim James - Art Direction // Jim James - Design // Jim James - Group Member // Two-Tone Tommy - Group Member // Carl Broemel - Group Member // Lowell Reynolds - Assistant // Bo Koster - Group Member // Patrick Hallahan - Group Member // Felice Ecker - Publicity // Rick Kwan - Assistant // Pam Nashell - Publicity // Colin Suzuki - Assistant // Kyle McInnis - Assistant // Riny VanEijk - Web Design
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