My Morning Jacket- Circuital

Purchased at Schoolkids Records in Raleigh, NC, on 6/30/11

DISC-CLAIMER: I won't usually write in the first person, but I decided that it was appropriate for this particular album. I started listening to My Morning Jacket in December 2009, when a friend of my dad's with really good taste in music burned me a "The Very Best of My Morning Jacket, In My Opinion" mixed CD, which featured some of their more famous songs, such as "Evil Urges", "Touch Me, I'm Going To Scream,Pt. 1&2" and "Wordless Chorus". I really liked the band, but never got around to buying one of its albums. I bought a ticket for the Cary stop on their 2010 tour, but unfortunately, I forgot there were exams the next day, and I couldn't see them after all.
Anyway, I read the June "Summer Double Issue" of Rolling Stone Magazine, which had an in-depth article on MMJ and the new album. The article, along with hearing the first thirty seconds of the title track online convinced me to go out and buy this album. Formal writing starts...now.

On the follow-up to their hugely successful 2008 album "Evil Urges", Louisville psych-rockers My Morning Jacket manage to create an excellent, coherent record that is different than anything they've done without being anything but themselves. Instead of the lush psychedelic soundscapes and hard-rock instrumental breaks on past songs like "Evil Urges" and "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part 2", "Circuital"'s strength lies in its emotional movement and its childlike wonder, especially on the tracks "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)", a Neil Young tinged ballad (and perhaps one of the best ballads of the last five years, with lyrics such as "I won't grow older, at least not in my mind"), and "Outta My System", a humorous song in which the narrator regrets taking drugs and stealing cars. Bandleader Jim James supposedly wrote those two songs for Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the band from the Muppets, for a scrapped project that consisted of MMJ playing as a backing band for an animatronic Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem live show, adding to the playful nature of the album.
The album opens with a gong hit, which begins the dark, brooding "Victory Dance" in which Jim James wonders if he should "wet the ground with the sweat of my brow and believe in my good work?" and hoping to watch "The victory dance when the work is done." The album's first single, "Holding on to Black Metal" is catchy, features a female mini-choir on backing vocals, and is funky. But the best track is probably the epic, seven- minute long title track, which starts off with a quiet, palm-muted electric guitar riff played by Carl Broemel, which, coupled with Jim James' quiet singing, gives the song, at first listen, a haunting feel. This changes completely when James effortlessly slides into his falsetto, a harbinger to the "Solsbury Hill"-esque power chord and jangly acoustic guitar transition into the second half of the song, which is driven by the dynamite rhythm section of Patrick Hallahan's powerful drumming, Tom Blankenship's rolling bass line, and Bo Koster's rapidly arpeggiated piano chords.
Though the last four tracks of the album are not quite as memorable as the first six, "Circuital" is a solid record from MMJ, with a stronger focus on songwriting rather than their trademark jams that place them with The Flaming Lips as this generations' leading psychedelic rock band. It is also a fantastic record in its own right.