Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
May 6, 2015Production has never been cleaner. Progressions have never been tighter. The adhesive has never been stronger. And Jim James has never been finer.
-
Apr 27, 2015It's a triumphant listen for longtime fans of the band, and hopefully it will perk up some new, fresh ears as well. [Apr-May 2015, p.84]
-
MagnetJun 4, 2015A beautiful mess. [No. 120, p.51]
-
MojoMay 20, 2015Even amid its fluffy ornamentation, producer Tucker Martine spikes the players' innately epic capabilities with a puritan elixir. The rewards are considerable. [Jun 2015, p.84]
-
Classic Rock MagazineMay 12, 2015When it's good, it's very good. [Jun 2015, p.91]
-
May 5, 2015One of the band’s finest and most alluring offerings to date.
-
May 4, 2015All those lyrics about openness, about flow, about mind-body dualism--they suit this band perfectly, along with cavernous reverb and heavy-foot midrange tempos.
-
May 4, 2015The Waterfall changes that trend. If you like your rock records weird, funny, epic, sad and hazily spiritual, this is one you won't want to miss.
-
May 1, 2015Always prey to their psychedelic tendencies, here MMJ swallow the full tab and dive headfirst into a whirlpool of supposition, analogy and swirling guitars.
-
Apr 30, 2015While it’s possible to detect where My Morning Jacket are coming from--Get the Point recalls Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin’, In Its Infancy (The Waterfall) has echoes of 70s soft-rock in its major-seventh chords, and the wailing guitars on Thin Line nod to Crazy Horse--they never become mired in self-conscious retro-stylings.
-
Q MagazineApr 29, 2015Waterfall finds them back doing what they do best. [Jun 2015, p.108]
-
Apr 27, 2015Despite the crossroads much of The Waterfall suggests, the band and their leader seem wholly, spiritually aligned--thrillingly so, in fact.
-
Apr 27, 2015At its finest, The Waterfall balances between mad and magnificent.
-
Apr 30, 2015The Waterfall stalls the most during the usually incendiary guitar workouts. But this is Jim James accepting where he and My Morning Jacket are at the moment: a bit older, a bit broken, more skeptical but very much among the living.
-
Aug 6, 2015"Get the Point" and "Big Decisions" strike a personal honesty James hasn't revealed before, and closer "Only Memories Remain" hearkens George Harrison as simultaneously devastating and uplifting. The personal is the universal.
-
May 14, 2015This record should be coupled with its predecessor but it without doubt exceeds its ambitions.
-
May 5, 2015Gripping and in waves, The Waterfall might not be a classic, but it still suggests that after nearly two decades fans don’t know every side of My Morning Jacket. Luckily, they keep opening new doors for us to explore.
-
Apr 27, 2015My Morning Jacket harken back to their alt country roots on The Waterfall and create a remarkable vision of the American countryside in the process, one as filled with solitude as it is with wonder.
-
May 6, 2015New listeners may be disconcerted by the record’s wide stylistic scope, but there are many worthy moments which can be latched on to if you stick with it, grabbing one of those hooks that seemingly appears out of nowhere.
-
May 5, 2015His juxtaposition of dreamy, doors-of-perception tunes and frustrated romantic ones can feel odd, but the musical brilliance keeps the project in focus through to the angst-ridden, Harry Nilsson-like folk of “Get the Point.” Just don’t expect a light listening experience.
-
May 5, 2015A breakup LP that lands somewhere near acceptance, The Waterfall might be the band's sunniest, and trippiest, album.
-
Apr 30, 2015The boisterous, almost-live feel of the production, and a leaning towards big, striding choruses and unashamedly anthemic moments means that things never get too ponderous.
-
UncutApr 29, 2015Through it all runs an ingrained psychedelic streak which is organic rather than synthetic, James and co tripping out on the glory of a sunset, a beach at dawn, a mile-high mountain view. [Jun 2015, p.68]
-
Apr 29, 2015The music has stark contrasts that work well to portray the emotions of singer Jim James.
-
Apr 28, 20152011’s Circuital was up there with their best work and now Jim James and company are back again with The Waterfall, which maintains their high standards.
-
May 5, 2015There’s some reassurance in that many of the more aimless songs sound like they would translate far better to the band’s true home on the stage, but here they qualify more as two-dimensional portraits.
-
May 4, 2015The Waterfall suggests maybe My Morning Jacket would be better off doing a few things well rather than losing their way down several different paths.
-
May 4, 2015The first few tracks, particularly the Prince-like Compound Fracture, are endearingly spacious and snake-hipped, but The Waterfall’s lacklustre second half indicates they’ve lost touch with the band they once were.
-
May 1, 2015While it perhaps won’t warrant an influx of new listeners, The Waterfall is an inviting record that will leave returning fans thankful for them not disappearing.
-
Apr 29, 2015Their forays into synth-heavy late-'70s/early-'80s prog and arena rock are alternately inventive and bafflingly blockheaded.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 44 out of 54
-
Mixed: 9 out of 54
-
Negative: 1 out of 54
-
May 5, 2015
-
May 5, 2015
-
May 5, 2015