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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 entirely new.
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As much as Evil Urges indulges, it rarely satisfies.
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The My Morning Jacket frontman cackles, croons, wails, wallops and stomps through the band's fifth and latest great album.
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The resulting monster is alternately charming and schizo. [July 2008, p.71]
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Evil Urges furthers the reveal with confident and imaginative strides, now with 100% less burning kitten jokes.
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This is an excellent release from an already accomplished band.
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Evil Urges isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination but it still manages to fall well short of expectations when applying the benchmark set by this fine band.
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Where the separate parts of the first half didn't gel – the chopping and changing of different styles too much to take in, perhaps, in too short a period--the second part is much easier to handle, and whilst the strong finish isn't enough to stop it falling short of "Z," Evil Urges does find its own place given time.
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The cumulative result is an exhilarating, bone-deep experience--a true album, built for sustained listening.
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FilterUrges is front-loaded with the "new direction" material.... The second half of the album largely abandons techno trickery and soul balladry for the lush alt-country fans have come to expect. [Spring 2008, p.91]
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With so many stylistic shifts, there's no easy description for the kind of album My Morning Jacket has created, so let's leave it at this: Evil Urges is the sound of a great band that's only getting better.
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Southern rock merchants capture the energy of their live shows on accomplished fifth album.
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Forget Evil Urges entirely; call this one Zzz.
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MojoHeard back to back they almost make sense, but the sequencing here amplifies the disjointed feel of an album that facinates and frustrates in equal measure. [July 2008, p.108]
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Evil Urges represents the creative peak of a band that has shown glimpses of greatness in the past and will hopefully continue to evolve in the future.
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Scattered and uneven, but not without its charms.
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Evil Urges has a little something for everybody, and at a time when albums often consist of a few peaks and a lot of filler, it’s remarkably consistent, mostly lacking extreme highs and lows.
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There are few fiery guitar freakouts, folk-influenced melodies, soaring space-rock bridges, or psychedelic flourishes here; instead, the empty space is mostly filled with serviceable falsetto funk and glassy-eyed yacht-pop.
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Evil Urges sounds like an album that falls short of its mark, committing the whole to a sound that ultimately weakens and breaks down its parts.
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Ultimately, though, this is a definite misfire in an otherwise impeccable career.
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Q MagazineThe Fleetwood Mac-tinged 'Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2' overcomes the overall air of pastiche. [July 2008, p.108]
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Evil Urges explodes the band's sound with the same kind of creative leap that Wilco took on "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Radiohead took on "Kid A."
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Evil Urges is easily MMJ's most accomplished and ambitious record, masterfully sifting through genres.
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As of right now though, Evil Urges is on the top of the heap for 2008.
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Although Evil Urges never reaches the gut-tickling peaks of 2001's "At Dawn," it still reiterates My Morning Jacket's ability to make music that sounds like everything and nothing at all.
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They're not the first current band to find new value in the big sounds and large lapels of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, but appear to be doing so without irony and something approaching childlike zeal.
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Picking up where "Z" skidded off, Evil Urges is like a carnival, like life (after all, My Morning Jacket is in cahoots with The Band), like cigarrons, discarded cigarettes dredged from the Cimarron River, and cinnamon sticks in a pot of boiled apples on the stove.
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If 2005's "Z" flirted with cautiously with funk synths and a more direct pop sound, Evil Urges makes it a full-blown, messy tryst.
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Under The RadarEvil Urges is bound to wound some listeners, but with a little dedication there are new pleasures to be found within. Submit. Explore. Enjoy. [Summer 2008]
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Under The RadarThe best next step would be to return to form as soon as possible and forget these Evil Urges. [Summer 2008]
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The album engages after repeats, but initially offers volume's immediacy over intimacy.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 51 out of 73
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Mixed: 16 out of 73
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Negative: 6 out of 73
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Jul 27, 2020What an album. You got some cool psychedelic, ballads, and hard rockers for all to enjoy.
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Jul 3, 2015
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May 7, 2015