Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: I'm Amazed
Comment: 4 1/2 Stars: A strong effort from Kentucky's finest indie-alternative-funk-r&b-rock band. "I'm Amazed" is one of the best songs of the year.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just don't do it.
Comment: After listening to this disc, I'm reminded of why Michael Jordan shouldn't have tried playing professional baseball. What a mistake. I wish these guys would remember that people actually BUY their music, that they spend their money after having waited 2-3 years for new stuff. And then they get this. I'm all for experimentation, for exploring new territory, but you don't have to release it to the public. Try it out onstage, put it on your website for free, but don't do this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is not a good album!
Comment: I have to say, almost everything about this effort reeks. This is one of those records that shocks you, but in a bad way. Jim James' vocals are as strong as ever, but there is nothing said here with any mystique. His lyrics are paper thin, the melodies are flat, and even worse this sounds like yacht rock. One thing MMJ has always had was a feeling to their jams and their sound. But this album completely shuts down that engine. I'm lost when it comes to tracks like "Highly Suspicious," because I'm accustomed to loving this band's soundscapes. "Evil Urges" has less than three worth while numbers, but even those sound like the MMJ of yesteryear. Why? Because the MMJ of today sounds like "Evil Urges" one of 2008's biggest musical failures. And so if you're looking for where the torch has been passed, check out the Fleet Foxes, or Grizzly Bear, because the decade of of good from MMJ just hit a sloppy halt. I can't believe I'm writing this review, but at the same time, I can't believe how big of a let down this album really is.
End of story, get it if you must, but be warned, many a'cringing will follow. It's a new direction, but its hard to follow.
Customer Rating:
Summary: OHMIGAWD! It's different than their old stuff! I hate them now!
Comment: I love all of MMJ's old stuff just as much as any other fan, and I have to say I love this album too. No one wants a band that keeps making the same stuff over and over. Sure, "It Still Moves" is their best album, but "Evil Urges" is still great. Come on, how can you not love "Highly Suspicious"?
Customer Rating:
Summary: My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Comment: Evil Urges (2008, Red) My Morning Jacket's fifth studio album. ***
This review hurts to write, mainly because My Morning Jacket has received a vast amount of critical praise this year, the leaders of that movement being Rolling Stone. Even recently they gave the album four stars, their symbol (as well as mine) for excellence. Unfortunately, I did not find the album to be so, instead I found it to be good, because I was honetly bored through a good deal of it.
I've heard My Morning Jacket before, and I have to say they may be the biggest waste of talent around right now. They delve more and more into their experimental side as their albums progress; 2005's Z marked a turning point from the band with its soul and funk concoctions. And on Evil Urges it goes even further, with the first three songs being a whirlwind of experimental rock. The title track shows Jim James busting falsetto like no one's business, as the song shifts from electronica-funk with a killer bassline to Yes prog rock. Then there's the unorthodox "Highly Suspicious," a Prince-delivered hard-rock song similar to something Nick Cave might try. All of the beginning is wonderfully strange and fresh, with music impossible to define: is it hard pop? Progressive alternative? Rush meets Prince meets Pink Floyd? But the attraction is lost when it slides into the country/southern rock stylings that eat up the majority of the album. Simply put, those cuts are dry, uneventful, and downright boring. It's a shame that this happened, because an entire album full of songs like "Evil Urges" would blow me away. Oh, and the cover art sucks, too.
-Stephen
www.politicianrock.blogspot.com
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