The band's first new music since 2015's Grammy Award-nominated The Waterfall, My Morning Jacket reaffirms the rarefied magic that's made My Morning Jacket so beloved, embedding every groove with moments of discovery, revelation and ecstatic catharsis. Produced and engineered by frontman Jim James over two multi-week sessions at LA's 64 Sound, the album came to life after what looked like a permanent hiatus for the band. But after performing four shows in summer 2019 — beginning with two mind-blowing nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre — My Morning Jacket was overcome with the urge to carry on.
That sense of purpose can be heard throughout the thrillingly expansive My Morning Jacket. For all its unbridled joy, songs like "Regularly Scheduled Programming" and the otherwordly, album-closing "I Never Could Get Enough" once again reveal My Morning Jacket's hunger for exploring the most nuanced and layered existential questions in song form while simultaneously harnessing the hypnotic intensity of their legendary live show more fully than ever before.
James said of the album: "I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we've all been cooped up for so long. I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we're able to be a part of people's lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we're still around to keep doing that."
My Morning Jacket have long been VMP favorites, and their fourth studio album, Z, was a former pick for VMP Essentials (and is one of our most collected records on Discogs).
The band, formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1998, consists of vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster. The group gained in popularity early in their career in part due to their live performances and has already announced touring dates in 2021.
