New Music Reviews: My Morning Jacket-Circuital, Okkervil River-I Am Very Far, Crystal Stilts-In Love With Oblivion

I think I get My Morning Jacket, finally. I loved "It Still Moves" and even more so "Z" but when "Evil Urges" surfaced three years ago, I felt a huge disconnect with that album. Sexy librarians and falsetto peanut butter pudding surprises thew me for a loop. It felt like a mess and even after several tries of getting into it in the last three years, I found some good moments ("Touch Me I'm Going To Scream" parts 1 and 2, "I'm Amazed", "Aluminum Park") but the goofy moments had me feeling like I just wasn't getting the jokes. My Morning Jacket had become the TV show "Scrubs" to me: I was missing out on the joke, if that's what was going on, I need a laugh track, stat.

But I tell ya, after several listens to "Holdin' On To Black Metal", the midpoint song on their latest album "Circuital", I have to say, Jim James and company can't help but show their humor...it's part of their makeup, their character. It is who they are: Boys choir in tow, a falsetto vocal delivery approach, and lyrics about hanging on to your black metal songs. It is downright ridiculous. But guess what, I refuse to be surprised.
After all, this comes from a band that previously recorded the embarassing "Highly Suspicious", composed a song about feeding a baby food on "Into The Woods", and released a series of EPs entitled "My Morning Jacket Does Gold Hole" and "My Morning Jacket Does Bad Jazz". What I'm getting at here is, I'm done taking My Morning Jacket seriously all the time, this they are not. "Holdin' On To Black Metal"...oh black metal you're so "misunderstood". YES! I GOT IT! Kids, put your Iron Maiden t-shirts away...it is time to grow up!

And the theme of "Circuital" is pretty much songs in the same vein as "Holdin' On To Black Metal" (though nowhere, I repeat nowhere as corny as). James' looks at finally maturing into adulthood and some of the stuff here is among his finer compositions. I adore the simplicity and beauty of "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)". I get a kick out of the things James has to get "Outta My System" as he chalks up youthful shenanigans (or something like that) like smoking drugs and stealing cars as things he's glad he got out of his system because he can grow into a competent adult. Opener "Victory Dance" and "You Wanna Freak Me Out" don't score any points at all in the lyric department, but they are both feel good jams nonetheless. They both scream to be heard in a live context rather than their studio versions. And you know, I'd love to get to see My Morning Jacket live.

And to me, the title track is what I enjoy most in a My Morning Jacket song, an engaging churning alt-country ditty that sounds like it could break into the Who's "Pinball Wizard" at any moment with James realizing he's "Older, Day To Day" but "Still Going Back To His Childhood Way". It's all part of his circuital make up or all of our circuital makeup. But there isn't enough of those moments this time around as "Circuital" winds down and out of steam by the pointless and ineffectual "Slow Slow Tune" and "Movin Away" at the end of the album.

But hey what do I know. It took me this long to just GET My Morning Jacket, even if I have "Z" listed as a JHO Hall Of Fame album, because I still love the hell out of it. I'm now beginning to realize these guys aren't going to release anything as engaging as that ever again, although they are definitely worth keeping track of for a few good songs here and there. I guess what I'm doing is "Holdin' On To "Z" or "Holdin' On To Gideon"...get it? No? Should I just "Lay Low"? Aw shucks. Damn you Black Metal! Why must I hold on!

Grade: B-

JHO Picks:
Circuital
Wonderful (The Way I Feel)
Outta My System
You Wanna Freak Out




___________________________________________________________________________________

Even slightly more disappointing, the latest album from Okkervil River entitled "I Am Very Far". It's just not an album of a band in transition, it's an album that no matter how hard it tries never gels into a collective, memorable or enjoyable affair. What happened to the songs that all flowed together for a natural payoff like on past efforts "The Stage Names" or "Black Boy Sheep"? On "I Am Very Far", we get a lot of bark without any bite (Oh what a horrible, but true metaphor!)

Lead singer Will Sheff was in control of prouction on their sixth album and what really, really gets to me is the addition of pointless sound effects and gimmicks that crop up on songs here and there. A cassette tape rewinding on the "Piratess", ambient sounds and distracting percussion in the middle of "White Shadow Waltz", or the out of sync vocals in the verses of ender "The Rise": all of these elements add up to zilch in pushing the songs beyond their boundaries. They're there because they're there. It's like Gepetto has added things to Pinocchio...just because he could.

But there are some good moments that rise above the fray. Opener "The Valley" is a shark of a tune, nihilistic with hand-claps while riding a point on groove that makes you want to pump your fist. "Rider" is highly enjoyable with its rushes of guitar and keyboards sweeping it along to a crazy climax at the end. The best one-two punch is near the end of the album with "Your Past Life As A Blast" which has a sexy and seductive undercurrent as Sheff coyly muses "Your throat where it's exposed looks like a crime/all sneak up slow and whisper quiet". And the first single "Wake And Be Fine" rivals the band's most riveting moments from their back catalog with a sure fire, Crazy Horse groove and Sheff delivering an angry put poignant chorus "Wake and be fine, You still got time, To wake and be fine".

Okkervil River usually doesn't disappoint, probably because their standard is so ridiculously high for quality material. Sheff still has the chops but this feels transitional. More often than not, there isn't enough flow on "I Am Very Far" to make me want to go back and discover more. I blame it on bad sequencing (Upbeat song, slow song, Upbeat....) and it's just not riveting enough in production value for me. And that's a shame, because I like the content and theme of the lyrics. Sheff's aiming big, but falling short. It's the most inward he has looked. I just wish some stronger hooks were here to back it up. What I'm gonna do is put just about all these songs into my daily mix. Maybe I'll have a different take by December. But for now, listening from end to end is just not a great experience. I am still very far from it.

Grade: C+

JHO Picks:
The Valley
Rider
Your Past Life Is A Blast
Wake And Be Fine




___________________________________________________________________________________

I like "In Love With Oblivion", the second album from neo-psychedelia outfit Crystal Stilts. I pushed them into the category of Ian Curtis in a graveyard category on their debut album "Alright Of Night". On "In Love With Oblivion", I now move them to the category of Ian Curtis backed by the Doors ready for a Laugh In performance in 1968. The songs are more focused this time around and remind me of the better parts of discovering late 60's psychedelia (The Black Angles could take some notes here).

"In Love With Oblivion" has one of my favorite 1-2-3 openings this year. It begins with the chugging, mysterious overtones of "Sycamore Tree" before immersing itself into the wonderfully warm "Through The Floor". It's a nice opening statement that sounds a lot fresher than their previous effort. "Silver Sun" sounds like the best Velvet Underground outtake never released to the public with a stunning 12 string guitar leading it through a haze of ethereal wonder. "Silver Sun" somehow makes the band seem sunny, in a The Notorious Byrd Brothers kinda of way. The most creative and enjoyable tune is "Shake The Shackles" as it tackles both post punk and neo-psychedelia to a T with lead singer Brad Hargett singing a favorite chorus of mine this year "Blinded to the future/Blinds me to the past/Trying to shake the shackles, the fall had first forecast". Love it!

Sure they fall into a tedious pitfall like the meditative "Alien Rivers" which kind of slows things down to a grinding halt and there is nothing groundbreaking in approach as everything is borrowed from past trailblazers in these genres. But just about every song is so damn enjoyable and focused. There are more Byrds like wonders "Flying Into The Sun", more 60's go-go tunes "Half A Moon", and even a couple odes including a Syd Barret era Pink Floyd "Precarious Stair" or a similar stanza to VU's "Run, Run, Run" with "Prosthemus At Large".

Hargett has so much reverb added to his vocals it is anything but immediate, sounding more like it is coming from the room adjacent to the one you're in. His vocals soar like a cloud over the backing music so much that it seems the two are separate entities. But it all works as the songs themselves are just too strong to deny. Now can Crystal Stilts keep a future streak up like "In Love With Oblivion"? I highly doubt it as it's going to be tough to keep things this engaging without losing their character. But give it credit, "In Love With Oblivion" is a very, very strong sophomore album that will leave you wanting to go back and listen to a few more times...more than I can say for the other two reviews I've done this time round.

Grade: B+

JHO Picks:
Through The Floor
Silver Sun
Shake The Shackles
Precarious Stair

Source: http://www.jhostation.com/2011/06/new-music-reviews-my-morning-jacket.html

The Lucksmiths The Ting Tings Mean Red Spiders Mother Mother