“Highly Suspicious” by My Morning Jacket

Album Review

The new MMJ album, Evil Urges, is strange to say the least. It continues their trek through soul and funk influences, en route to proving they aren’t just an alt-country indie jam band from the South (though, seriously, Louisville should not be mistaken as southern).

Two of the first three songs feature Jim James employing a falsetto that errs on the side of ridiculous at times — oh, I get it; he likes Prince. “Highly Suspicious” sounds like a Halo Benders mashup with two disjointed and heavily contrasting vocals crashing together. And the giggling reminds me of Him from the Powerpuff Girls.

After that, it sounds like the MMJ you expect to expect. Crooning and swooning and slide guitars, (oh, my!) (“Sec Walkin’”), bouncy balladry (“I’m Amazed”), a swirling string section with the ‘cheesy’ and ‘trite’ cranked to 11 (“Thank You Too”), the rocker with inter-verse yelps (“Aluminum Park”), the über-crescendo (“Smokin’ From Shootin’”) and the disco barn burner (“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2”). Yes, disco barn burner.

Of course, that’s not to say this vast variety is very predictable at all. The nice thing about MMJ has been that they include only-after-the-third-time-listening surprise elements with their plethora of fun pop hooks.

Lyrically, I haven’t had the opportunity to sit with the album long enough to decipher much. So I’ll let you be the judge (I’m sure the superfans over at Pitchfork will have a review that tackles those depths soon enough).

In brief: falsetto is in this Spring. And so are sting arrangements.