Welcome everyone to the latest Top Five Fridays! This week, I’ll give you my five favorite tracks from My Morning Jacket.
When it comes to bands that helped shape my current musical preferences, this group really made an impact. I first heard of this group back in 2010 one day after I got done with classes for the day at SLCC. Right after hearing one song, I immediately wanted to hear a lot more. It was different than anything that I had heard up to that point, and you add the beautiful voice of Jim James it helped them stay in my personal playlist on a regular basis.
Enough with the preamble, let’s get right to it.
5. One Big Holiday (It Still Moves)
I’ve mentioned in the past how the key to a really good album is starting off with an absolute banger. Sadly, the group’s third effort doesn’t start off with this (Mahgeetah isn’t the best way to set the tone to me).
It’s the drum fill at the beginning of the track that gets you hooked waiting for something to happen. As the intro progresses, more instruments are used before things really get started and it gets you in the mood to listen to the rest of the song. The beauty of it is that despite it being a little more than five minutes long, it doesn’t feel like it.
4. Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part II (Evil Urges)
The album Evil Urges has a little darker tone to it and this is the magnum opus to me. Clocking in at eight minutes and 14 seconds follows a similar formula to One Big Holiday, but the big difference is that it takes its time to have that crescendo. You also have Jim James really showing off his vocal range about halfway through.
3. Wonderful (The Way I Feel) (Circuital)
Fun fact about this song: it has its origins with the Muppets. Yeah, this was supposed to songs used by Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, but the project never came to be. Thankfully, they kept working on this song and it really is a beautiful song that when I got the album in stores, I had to keep going back to this track. Circuital is an underrated album to me.
2. Big Decisions (The Waterfall)
I remember hearing this song for the first time and immediately falling in love with this group yet again. A song that is simply telling people to make changes in their life to make them happier. Simple and effective; the way most music should be.
Also, the visualizer for this is an absolute trip and would to have it on a constant loop at the house.
1. Wordless Chorus (Z)
The first song I ever heard was this and it really got me hooked on the group. I’d have this, along with most of Evil Urges playing on my iPod while I was still in community college on a regular basis. The chorus with just Jim James vocalizing is an absolute masterpiece in my mind and gets you into an almost trance-like state once he starts.
-Clint@1063RL