If My Morning Jacket played junior footy at their team’s awards night they would win the award for best Team Man. As in, they’re no game changer but you trust them with the ball and occasional passage of brilliance.
Their seventh studio, The Waterfall, opens with an Animal Collective song. Well not really, but Believe (Nobody Knows) is bafflingly reminiscent of Animal Collective. This of 4:54 of left of centre indie pop is a good listen and an above average tune, but its distinct likeness to Animal Collective is distracting.
My Morning Jacket have always been regarded for the stylistic shifts throughout their albums and the rich palette of tones the band manages to inject into the songs. For example, track four In Its Infancy (The Waterfall) is essentially a country tinged pop tune that sees vocalist, guitarist and main songwriter flexing his Southern accent to its full extent over wailing guitar to licks. The title and lyrics (“The idea was always their in its infancy”) in this song also make allusions towards the fact that The Waterfall has a sister album coming out next year that will feature material written in the same session as this album, so maybe there will be a song entitled In Its Maturity (The Waterfall)?
The album that preceded this, Circuital (2011)heralded a dynamic shift in the boldness and the quality of My Morning Jacket’s songwriting and these threads have been picked up again for The Waterfall, however the impact is a lot less profound on the listener this time round.
Coming back to my football analogy: Consider Circuital their premiership season, whereas with The Waterfall, they made the finals but got knocked out in the first round.
BY DAN WATT
