Skip to main content

IN REVIEW: My Morning Jacket - "The Waterfall II"



You can tell a lot about a band from the quality of the music that they release, obviously; it's another thing entirely, though, to take into consideration the quality of the music that they don't. In my mind, some bands separate themselves from the herd based on B-sides and outtakes that match and even sometimes surpass the material on their studio albums. 

The case of My Morning Jacket sort of fits the narrative, but not really; they don't have a ton of unreleased content (at least, not that I'm aware of) but the sessions for their 2015 album The Waterfall were fruitful enough to leave them with a fair amount of unused songs. That's the setup for The Waterfall II, not a sequel but an addendum, an album-length experience pieced together from that unused music, released five years after the original's release.

These songs don't always rival the ones that made the first album's release, but there is a lot of charm and chill contained here, and also a handful of surprises (which isn't surprising considering the band's penchant for trying on new hats). There's the country-disco foot tapper Climbing the Ladder, which is perhaps the record's most pleasant oddity. Feel You, with its lush orchestration and slow groove, becomes one of MMJ's most effectively emotional numbers, while Beautiful Love (Wasn't Enough) comes as close to displaying their Beatles influence as anything in their repertoire, with a screechy, twisted solo thrown in for good measure. Layering is key on this record, with instrumentation and vocals piled on thick in places, most effectively on the lengthy, muscular Wasted; this one takes six minutes but is so worth the wait .

The Waterfall II plays really well as an album, and it's easy to forget that this is a collection of songs they'd previously left behind. The added touches and sequencing are expertly done, the songs are mostly up to snuff and I'm glad these songs saw the light of day, even if it took five years. The good news is, we hopefully won't have to wait so long for the next one; Jim James claims they've already got an all-new record in the can but are waiting until they can tour it to release it. So, add another to the massive list of reasons we want this global pandemic to be over.

July 10, 2020 • ATO
Highlights Feel You • Magic Bullet • Wasted

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider .  W...
Post a Comment
Read more

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...
Post a Comment
Read more