My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket is MMJ's most satisfying work since 2008's Evil Urges, and a splendid example of what can happen when their group mind is in sync.

My Morning Jacket, for the most part, succeeds as the album fuses My Morning Jacket’s more polished moments with their fuzzy jam band origins into a successful brew.

Frequently thrilling, and its pilfering from America's classic rock catalogue - including The Allman Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Creedence clearwater Revival, The Band and Crazy Horse - is affectionate and celebratory. [Nov 2021, p.33]

There are simple messages, delivered earnestly, but the magic of this group has always been their ability to translate the elemental into the transcendental. It is a miracle they pull off frequently on My Morning Jacket, with confidence and inspiration, every moment a fresh beginning. [Nov 2021, p.85]

My Morning Jacket – their first album in six years - finds a supremely engaging, often blissfully beautiful halfway point between the glossy eccentricities of more recent MMJ albums and those old slow-burn yet highly combustible 'jam band' dynamics.

There something like It Still Moves or Circuital soars to untouchable heights, the band’s latest falls flat at a noticeable rate in terms of delivery. ... Their new album is representative of their live show in the best way: It can shift from a rootsy rock number to a hyped-up free-for-all at the drop of a hat, sometimes even within the same song.

It seems to capture their essence better than its predecessors. Whilst the effect is rather eclectic, covering several of their bases, and with its existence being a little surprising after recent years’ events that pointed to their departure as a collective, it’s a welcome return.

While there isn’t a ton here that forwards their narrative, the sense of being in a studio blasting away right as shows and festivals begin to open again is palpable.

The first two songs on the album, which are also the first two singles, are among the most plodding and pedestrian of the band’s career. ... Much of My Morning Jacket transcends the directionlessness of the two opening tracks and singles.