Every time I hear “Mahgeetah,” the first song on My Morning
Jacket’s It Still Moves, I see rays of golden afternoon sunlight
flooding into the long windows of an old brick gymnasium from my childhood.
Presented with such a remarkable and gorgeous soundscape, my mind creates a
likely setting from which this music could come to life. Something in the
alchemy of that song evokes a very powerful sensory experience that I don’t
feel all that often. Upon its release in the fall of 2003, I wasn’t looking for
this album, but it found me and it hasn’t left my side for too long since. It
Still Moves, My Morning Jacket’s third full-length release, captures a
young, hungry band making a play for the big time, offers a revealing document
of five years of hard work on tour, and endures as one of the strongest, most
satisfying rock albums of the last twenty years.
It Still Moves hums
with an inclusive intimacy that makes the listeners feel like they are along
for the ride, bearing witness to the band’s triumphs and failures while
appreciating all of the inside jokes and observations generated along the way.
As I’ve already mentioned, “Mahgeetah” opens the album and promptly introduces
a distinctive, bracing tone that carries all the way through. The band built a
custom studio and recorded lead singer Jim James’ performances in a converted
grain silo. The effect lends James’ already dynamic voice an otherworldly power
and gives “Mahgeetah” an irresistible grandeur. Up next, “Dance Floors” breaks
into an easy, natural mix of country-rock and Muscle Shoals-style R&B
before igniting into a blistering showcase for the band’s visiting horn
section, Willie Mitchell’s Fabulous Memphis Horns. “Golden” continues the
streak of strong openers by slowing down the pace and highlighting the subtler
elements of the band’s sound. The lyrical sentiment echoes the kind of touring
musician’s ennui explored in Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Lodi,” but James’
songwriting and delivery elevate the song above a travelogue of soul searching
remorse. All twelve songs on It Still Moves prove My Morning Jacket’s
strength as an inventive, tight ensemble breathing new life into the forms of
classic rock established in the early seventies, but few songs demonstrate the
band’s skill for potent and expressive guitar playing as capably as “Run
Through.” The final song, “One in the Same,” feels like a moment shared among
close friends gathered around a fire in the wee hours of the morning after a
memorable party. James’ plaintive voice, accompanied only by a heavily strummed
acoustic guitar, guides us somewhere between elegy and reckoning and closes out
the album on a note of weary warmth that lets us in on one last joke before
bidding us farewell. 
Last year, My Morning Jacket released a deluxe edition of It
Still Moves featuring a remastered version of the album and a bonus disc of
demos and outtakes. I tend to be fairly neutral when it comes to remastered
reissues of albums I already love because the quality of the processes and
results can vary so greatly, but I’m quite impressed with the enhanced edition
of this album. In general, the entire album sounds much sharper and the
individual instruments are far more distinct, but I really appreciate how much
better I can hear the horn parts on “Dance Floors” and “Easy Morning Rebel.”
Although I’m familiar with a few other albums by My Morning Jacket, none of
them have had anywhere near the same impact on me as this one. With It Still
Moves, My Morning Jacket distilled the essence of their many influences,
summoned their considerable aspirations and ambitions, and created a collection
of songs that belongs right beside their musical heroes’ best albums.
-
John Parsell
