3 Out Of 4 Critics Give Into My Morning Jacket’s “Urges”

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration in this installment is the new full-length by My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges, which hits stores today:

• “James’ lyrical expressions of fulfilled or disappointed longing combine with the extroverted song structures on Evil Urges to make this a sexy bunch of songs, even when the desire expressed is for an unnamed god or for humanity as a whole. (That hot bespectacled bookworm does get her due.) Already beloved by a growing cult, MMJ reaches out in a different way here, becoming more accessible without shrinking its ambitions.” [Los Angeles Times]

• “With its patient, synthetic gleam slithering around James’ lusty hoodoo, ‘Touch Me, Pt. 2’ is My Morning Jacket’s Moroder moment, bringing a highly frustrating record to a close with the line ‘Oh, this feeling is wonderful/ Don’t turn it off.’ If it hadn’t been such an exhausting ride to get there, I might not want to.” [Pitchfork]

• “Several tracks exude an indie-space-rock vibe not entirely unlike the Flaming Lips, but simpler moments are often more moving. The imagery in ‘Librarian,’ a ballad about love among the stacks, is strikingly delicate. ‘Take off those glasses and let down your hair for me,’ James sings wistfully, summing up what My Morning Jacket has done as a band.” [Washington Post]

• “James seems well aware that any definition of “classic rock” that doesn’t include Prince, Radiohead and Wilco is pretty bereft. Now, with Evil Urges, he can add My Morning Jacket to that list.” [Rolling Stone]