The world of My Morning Jacket is getting more and more exciting as we barrel our way toward May 4th. And no, I’m not talking about the running of The Oaks race, but rather the release of My Morning Jacket’s seventh full length studio album, The Waterfall; which is the first of two new albums we see from the band, the second, as-yet-untitled release will be out early next year.
We also know that My Morning Jacket will be performing this summer, headlining our local musical Mardi Gras known as Forecastle with almost a hundred other bands.
Last month the band gave us our first preview of The Waterfall with the release of the album’s first single “Big Decisions” – which is a trippy journey to the cross roads of someone’s life. This morning the band released a second song from the album, this one titled “Spring (Among the Living)”.
Lyrically, it’s fairly straightforward, much the way “Big Decisions” was, it’s about rebirth and change utilizing nature as a metaphor for rebirth in our own lives. Musically it opens with a series of menacing howls and a haunting guitar riff – the psychedelic thread also carries through from “Big Decisions”. Which in both cases the striking abstraction of the music and the straightforward lyrics offer just enough juxtaposition to be powerful.
A fact, that indicates to me that the band, who has openly discussed the fact that they try and reinvent themselves with each album – whether its southern rock, 70’s funk & soul, to reggae, no album sounds exactly alike. With the release of “Big Decisions” and “Spring (Among the Living)” My Morning Jacket is clearly hinting to fans that they can expect the band’s unique twist on psychedelic music from the coming release of The Waterfall; a genre from the late 60’s that has inspired them to become one of the biggest band’s in the world.