My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

Evil Urges – My Morning Jacket

By Chris Peken

Time to reconsider your view of the former hairy Southern rockers, as My Morning Jacket put their psychedelic influences in the back pocket and their Marshall amps in storage – marked “to be used wisely.” Be it the completely unexpected pseudo-Prince funk of the highly camp Highly Suspicious, or the call to the bedroom of Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 1 – drenched in inter-galactic keyboards and sweet coo-ing harmonies – Evil Urges is like nothing MMJ have provided us with before. I’m Amazed provides the strongest link to their Southern country roots, and is as strong a mid-tempo rocker as has been penned in some time; and as the album nears the end their are some big, beautiful, stupid rockers – Aluminium Park and Remnants – that shouldn’t be ignored. Speaking of being ignored Sec Walkin’ is a slow, pedal-steel-dripping country-soul number, a mix of Marvin Gaye and Glenn Campbell that is exactly why they invented the SKIP button. Explore MMJ as they explore themselves in a genre- bending joy-ride that you will repeat over and over.

*** 1/2