Number 79 - It Still Moves by My Morning Jacket

Number 79: It Still Moves by My Morning Jacket

Indie ahead of its time

Release: September 9th, 2003
Genre: Indie Rock
Favorite Tracks: Rollin' Back, Run Thru, Mahgeetah

 

Where I heard it:

Prior to the normalization of aux cables, I begrudgingly listened to the radio quite often at work and on car rides. Fortunately, there were plenty of quality stations in my area that I could flip between to satisfy my specific tastes. One of my favorites was 94.3 The X, an alternative station that catered to a wide variety of genres and decades. Around the fall of 2015, I was driving around in my friend's car listening to a live studio session from The X's headquarters, who was later introduced as My Morning Jacket. For some reason, this trivial memory lives on in my head due to the band's outstanding live performance combined with their noteworthy name. In regards to both of those points, I hadn't heard anything like it before. This makeshift concert broadcast over the airwaves sounded like a master tape, only distinguishable by the intermittent cheers from the studio audience between songs. I figured that if My Morning Jacket sounded this good in a live setting, so must their recorded material. I would soon begin sampling pieces of It Still Moves after Spotify recommended Run Thru in a playlist and playing One Big Holiday in the Rock Band franchise. It took me about a year to finally dig deep into this album, which only confirmed everything I initially assumed about My Morning Jacket's abilities.

 

And you, you always told me
No matter how long it holds me
If it falls apart or makes us millionaires
We'll be right here forever
Go through this thing together
And on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads
~ Golden

 

What to expect:

My Morning Jacket is generally listed as an indie rock or southern rock group, but it's tough to place an all-encompassing label on the band's genre. Based out of Kentucky, My Morning Jacket draws deep inspiration from the grassroots country sound they grew up around and channels it all into It Still Moves. These parallels are glaringly obvious in songs like Dancefloors and Easy Morning Rebel which amplify the twangy guitar filters and southern drawl of vocalist Jim James, emulating a style fit for a proper honkey-tonk. Meanwhile, you have tracks that embrace the element of rock and roll with full-force bangers like One Big Holiday and Run Thru that tonally contrast the majority of It Still Moves. Where this album and My Morning Jacket as a whole succeeds the most is during slow, gentle ballads that pay homage to country legends like Hank Williams and Willie Nelson who perfected the country ballad. This is where the strengths of Jim James fully become realized, utilizing a sonorous falsetto that hauntingly echoes over the instruments. The heavy usage of reverb across the entire band gives off this distant, dreamy vibe that borders a psychedelic experience. The emotional impact carried with every song on It Still Moves contains is palpable, whether that feeling is inexplicable joy or crushing sadness. This spectrum of feelings paired with a variety of musical stylings creates a remarkable dissonance that leaves the listener captivated simply through curiosity of what lies ahead. My Morning Jacket has the capabilities to produce more technically advanced songs, but wisely elect to dial back the tempo in order to highlight their atmospheric minimalism. I give a lot of praise to My Morning Jacket for showcasing an array of different musical approaches on It Still Moves without sacrificing the core of what makes this group so special to begin with.

 

When I think about the story
One thing seems pretty clear
The warm things you left behind
They still want you here
But only in time you find
That all things come back around
And just like the frown
We'll turn them upside down
~ Rollin' Back

Why it's my favorite:

Out of the numerous famous voices in music history, there's qualities unique to Jim James that boldly stand out amongst some of the greats. There is no faking the strong southern accent James has developed living in Kentucky. His vocal range gives him the ability to conjure whatever the moment calls for, be it a soothing lullaby or a ghostly wail. The lyrics he sings are all typical retrospective tales of love, refuge, and life on the road; but the flowery language used to convey his thoughts is so beautifully witty and creative. More figuratively, listening to Jim James' enamoring voice feels like a warm Autumn day under a shady tree, watching the rays of sunlight pierce through the rustling leaves in the gentle breeze. The crystal clear production of the album helps render it an ageless classic that was well ahead of its time in the indie genre. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, It Still Moves holds up today not only among the discography of My Morning Jacket, but head-to-head with about anything in the indie scene today.