Metascore
67

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 31
  2. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. The cumulative result is an exhilarating, bone-deep experience--a true album, built for sustained listening.
  2. 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.
  3. 90
    Evil Urges is easily MMJ's most accomplished and ambitious record, masterfully sifting through genres.
  4. This is an excellent release from an already accomplished band.
  5. Evil Urges furthers the reveal with confident and imaginative strides, now with 100% less burning kitten jokes.
  6. 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."
  7. The My Morning Jacket frontman cackles, croons, wails, wallops and stomps through the band's fifth and latest great album.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 80
    The resulting monster is alternately charming and schizo. [July 2008, p.71]
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. Southern rock merchants capture the energy of their live shows on accomplished fifth album.
  14. As of right now though, Evil Urges is on the top of the heap for 2008.
  15. 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.
  16. Filter
    72
    Urges 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]
  17. Under The Radar
    70
    Evil 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]
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 73 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 51 out of 73
  2. Negative: 6 out of 73
  1. Jul 27, 2020
    8
    What an album. You got some cool psychedelic, ballads, and hard rockers for all to enjoy.
  2. Jul 3, 2015
    10
    The album that got me into My Morning Jacket. While some have criticized the sound of Evil Urges as being too diverse and lacking in focus, IThe album that got me into My Morning Jacket. While some have criticized the sound of Evil Urges as being too diverse and lacking in focus, I find it actually does a perfect job of capturing the magic of MMJ: namely, the band's ability to shape-shift on the fly, offering disparate sounds that are nonetheless compelling and always anchored by Jim James' incomparable voice. Full Review »
  3. May 7, 2015
    5
    Evil Urges is a major misfire and a hugely disappointing follow-up to the universally adored 'Z'. MMJ have taken some artistic risks withEvil Urges is a major misfire and a hugely disappointing follow-up to the universally adored 'Z'. MMJ have taken some artistic risks with this album and unfortunately none of the experimentation works. "Highly Suspicious" sounds completely out of character and is poor homage to Prince. Overall the album is a patchy collection of their weakest songs shifting uneasily between different influences. Such a shame though, as a "Z' was clearly one of the finest albums of the 00's Full Review »