Serious music fandom for me is a strange & marvelous thing. With so many bands & artists that I follow at an addictive level, sometimes you just have to step off the rocking-&-rolling psychedelic treadmill, sometimes you need a break from the upside-down & twirly ride with one superfan sensation, just to catch your breath & explore other things.
Two decades in, now seems the perfect time to take stock of my love for My Morning Jacket, which has preoccupied almost all of my 21st century. My Morning Jacket have been with me for 20 years, since their big breakout album “Z,” with its glorious moody sonics, so much reverb & psych vibe in an indie rock package. These warm fuzzy envelopes of vibration meant that the critics attributed to them the illustrious claim of “America’s Radiohead,” shared with groups like Wilco.
My journey into heavy Jacket fandom lined up with attending as many shows as humanly possible & it all corresponded for me with the last leg of a 20-year drug-&-booze-bender, by the end of my 30s & the end of the “aughts,” it was a devious mixture of hard liquor & magic mushrooms & so much more. The Jacket were a sweet soundtrack when the drinking & drugging went sour. I drove countless hours south just to black-out & forgot much more than the setlist.
By 2009, the Jacket were still there for me with the ascension of a song like “Gideon” to the choir hymnal of a new life, when I embraced the lifestyle of a clean-&-sober-music fan, & I would have religious experiences with songs like “Circuital” or “Compound Fracture.” “Wonderful” was the way I was feeling. But as much as spiritual seeker & a collective shaman for us all, I had no idea that the author of “Wonderful” was sometimes feeling much less than wonderful.
Fast forward to September 2024. Someone in “the business” whispered this to me: “Everyone in the band is sober, they are happier than they’ve ever been, & the new album is ready to go.” At first, I wasn’t sure if all that was public information, but now that I have heard Jim speak openly about it in interviews, I am comfortable to say it is.
This first whisper about the mental health evolution of the band was around the time of the Jacket’s fall co-headline tour with Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, & I caught three electrifying shows, & I really felt my love for this band rekindling. I had never fallen out of love with the Jacket, but they were not in daily listening rotation. “Waterfall 2” (2020) & “Self-Titled” (2021) are strong in their own right, but I didn’t find myself fully freaking out for them, as I did on the entire run from “Z” through “Waterfall.” In some ways “Evil Urges” & “Circuital” were albums that truly became part of my blood & bones & entire being.
When my friend told me all that about sobriety & happiness, I was intrigued & excited. Now that I have listened to Jim unburdening & opening his heart in a few different interviews, I am grateful & enthralled. The days of welcoming “is” into my world & anticipating another tour have been entirely energizing, it’s like I am falling in love with the band all over again.
As I was preparing to share about my absolute love for the new album on the “Music Nerds Record Club” monthly stream, I stumbled into a brand new episode of the “Depresh Mode” mental health podcast, with Jim as the guest. In the lead-up to the interview, the host referred to Jim as a “recovering alcoholic,” & later in the episode, Jim said that, in fact, everyone in the band is sober. That was the first public disclosure of this that I had heard, confirming those previous whispers, now so open & vulnerable & transparent. It definitely taps into the deeper, soulful, hardcore joy that I am getting from this record.
On another podcast called “Love is the Author,” host Jaymee Carpenter & Jim James journey deeper into what Jim calls the ocean of consciousness & the Wall of God. This stuff is all the cosmic American things we have come to expect from Jim. The words are super woo-woo, hippy-dippy, love-is-the-answer, ain’t reality trippy. To be clear, I am totally here for it. But on both pods, Jim is also honest about self-loathing, depression, suicidal ideation, & alcoholism.
The conversations are giant group hugs with the universe, an injection of self-love & broader, humbler perspective. Jim sharing about his own wellness & mental health & sobriety journey is helping me with my similar journey. I feel he is our cosmic sibling, even though I only know him through the music & the interviews & the like.
From those first dips at the listening parties in Nashville two weeks ago, now into several deeper listens on my headphones & good speakers, we are certain that this album has opened a portal in the ceiling of the world, the beams of light from the top of your head are radiating into the heart of that God-wall. The interaction between all the band-members & their producer Brendan O’Brian seem to have solidified the expansive, electric, eclectic groove. Jim said that 100 ideas were narrowed down to 20 songs to finally evolve into the 40 minutes of material to make the final cut. Musically, the licks & grooves are on fire, the beauty & bounce have me in a full-tilt boogie, I am all up in it, all to the wall, foundation to the sky.
I first noticed that the album has a “classic”-Jacket-feeling overall, by which I guess I mean, it has an Evil Urges-meets-Circuital-era allure. The simple title “is” & the album cover of the band members' faces blurred, as they sit together sharing some kind of ground-mind-seance-communion, suggests to me a mature collective of middle-aged rock-n-roll mystics, at peace with the world “as it is,” even as we know the world spins in topsy-turvy chaos.
My listening to this incredible album contributes to me sharing in this sense of acceptance & joy. I could give into anger & despair, especially now. Not denying that there are seriously shitty things going on in the wider world, but also admitting that music heals & that healed & happy folks are often better equipped to deal with suffering & shameful acts of the powerful. We can control our personal emotional & mental posture & outlook, even & especially now, & still choose to radiate love. This album radiates love.
The album projects a profound & alluring ambiance that is boundless & bouncy with sprinkles & sparkles of rainbows & sunshine. I think back to some of the expansive rock-soul sounds of the 1970s that I know have inspired Jim James & how the 1970s also felt a bit like an existential apocalypse, but people get back to goodness & grooving. The world might be ending, but it’s time to keep rocking anyways.
On a review podcast discussing the album, another critic implied that Jim was trying to be a “psychedelic Marvin Gaye,” suggesting in his somewhat smug tone, as if this were somehow a bad thing. The soulful radio-friendly aspect of recent Jacket & even the Jim solo records, these are good things. Cosmic Kermit the Frog & Psychedelic Marvin Gaye: I am here for it.
As the 40-minute listen concludes on the back stretch, things get scruffier & jammier but we are entirely elevated, soaring throughout, with not a single track to skip. When I attended the advance listening parties, I was on my feet & dancing for the entirety of both listens that when too quickly. Now that this is my permanent soundtrack on headphones or cranking from the speakers, I am leaping for joy like Puck or Peter Pan defying the impending doom. My long walks, I take “is.” Dancing with my sweetie & fellow Jacket fan around the family room, we need “is.” Spinning in circles in the grass on the campus where I work, I am probably listening to “is.”
I have heard others say this: we need album-opener “Out in the Open” as-an opening song at opening night of the tour in Chattanooga or especially on the first night at One Big Holiday. That tracks, as this song is a barefoot-in-the-sand, organic beach jam, images of trees & water & sun, rivers flowing, hearts swirling throughout. It starts as a noodly slow burn, then blossoms into sunbursts & shines. I imagine people twirling fire or juggling glowsticks at the show. From that flowery sweet song, you bump right into “Half a Lifetime” with its funky feels, with the striking image of a “motorpsycho prison” & “hard rock vision.”
Then there is “Everyday Magic” which “casts spells” & rides a “ripple in the fabric of all space time” & ultimately reminds us that we “can’t do it alone.” The sweet soulfulness of the entire record really simmers on this one & the next one, “I Can Hear Your Love.”
“Beginning from the Ending” is a mellow meditation that starts out slow to contemplate the meaning of all existence, in the way that Jim does as a songwriting-speciality. Singing about the deeper purposes & paradoxes of life throughout, the song builds from a subtly strummed opening to a crashing crescendo with the reliable reminder that “Love was all that mattered.”
“Lemme Know” is a chugging twinkling banger that opens doors, considers an earth lost as dust & an ocean of forgiveness. Jim’s lyrics & singing cultivate an admission & an acceptance of how things are simultaneously messed up & beautiful in this beautiful terrible world.
“Die for It” will probably be a real face-melter live. This is one of those tracks (not the first by any stretch) where I feel like Jim & Carl have some Plant & Page chemistry, blustering & blistering out their own careening into classic rock mythology. Are there some weird echoey effects on Jim’s voice in this one? Carl’s guitar goes crazy! Am I tripping, no, I am sober & it’s only 4:30pm in the afternoon or maybe it’s 9:00am in the morning. I can’t wait to hear this one in person. I want to hear all of these in-person.
I am sad the album is already almost over at this point, but “River Road” invites us inside whatever this journey has been. I want to light candles to this song, even though it is daytime. This song is a heart-mind-body coming home song, perfect album closer on a sizzling crescendo.
The first two listens at the listening party came inside to the tender heart, changed me to my core, elevated me in my spirit that needed the distraction from the impending implosion-of-society. Yes, I was that guy standing by the speaker on the Grimeys new-releases aisle both dancing & scribbling in my notebook. The last words I wrote were WOW! WOW! WOW! Several listens later, I cannot shake the smile on my face, cannot stop singing, cannot stop saying WOW! WOW! WOW!
It was a long week of waiting between the listening party & album release, thank goodness that I was traveling & distracted by other music. Then it was the official first day of spring, yes the spring equinox. This album is the new day, the new light, the new era of My Morning Jacket.
With spring & fall tours, I said I was only going to buy a couple of tickets. Now I am buying a lot more tickets. My Jacket fandom is on serious fire. Pack the car, bring snacks & your sweetheart. Waste money on merch. Get there early, stay until after the house-lights come up. See you out there. Much love.
Andrew/Sunfrog
March 2025
