As was true of 2011’s “Circuital,” My Morning Jacket’s “The Waterfall” is largely a feel-good album, with Jim James acting as de facto spiritual guru.
Like English teachers, ministers and uncles, the best motivational speakers are reformed heathens. Relating is half the battle, so words of wisdom resonate clearer when they come from someone who’s been to the other side and back.
On stage in a Grizzly Adams beard and , lead singer Jim James has preached to the band’s faithful for nigh on two decades now. When he warns about how a life spent in bars chillingly fast, or the the importance of growing past your youthful indulgences, you can’t help but believe it’s from a place of knowing. The band even puts on a retreat of sorts, an all-inclusive mini-festival in Mexico called , where fans can, in the band’s words, get it .
So itap not unexpected that so much of the energy of the band’s latest effort, “The Waterfall,” is dedicated to sweeping inspirational flourishes. As was true of 2011’s “Circuital,” it’s largely a feel-good album, with James acting as de facto spiritual guru. “Time to roll, the answer floats on down the farthest shore / Of the mind,” he hums at album’s open as if perched on our collective shoulder on “Believe (Nobody Knows).” As is typical for a My Morning Jacket album, it takes no time for the song to hit a roof-cracking arena rock swell to match the uplifting sentiment.
The crux of the lesson plan here is the power of the mind, as is outlined on the prog-rocking eponymous track, “In Its Infancy (The Waterfall).” The waterfall in question is the torrent of obligations and fears that batter us in our lives, which James proclaims can be stopped “by just believing.” The constant proselytizing can get grating fast, as if the album could be subtitled “My Morning Jacketap Take Back Your Life In Ten Easy Songs!” But as to put the onus back on the listener, James reminds us on “Big Decisions” how ridiculous it is to make a CD your life coach: “What do you want me to do? / Make all the big decisions for you?” Mixed messages abound.
Casting aside the motivational concept album of “The Waterfall,” My Morning Jacket are typically bankable when it comes to breaking off massive alt-rock riffs. They’ve been toting to their promotional performances, and it shines in its own Miami Vice radio way. But save for it and and “Believe,” the highlights here are found in down-tempo respites. “Get The Point” deals largely in cliches, but they’re strung together gorgeously by a welcome appearance from James’ acoustic picking prowess. “Only Memories Remain” gives the band a slow soul-burner to shuffle into their setlists, sounding as they are wont to do like a wedding band losing sight of the evening for the tabs that the groomsman slipped in their drinks.
These sprawling offerings are what make My Morning Jacket such a treasured outfit in the overlapping world of arena rock and jam band they inhabit. “The Waterfall” doesn’t have as many of these moments as the band’s last effort, instead favoring a generic 80’s rock sound that can go south pretty damn quick, especially when paired with James’ penchant for garden variety revelations (“Spring (Among The Living)” in particular). But at this point in the band’s career, itap well known that a My Morning Jacket album is as capable of campy new age rock as it is riveting prog ballads. On “The Waterfall,” they’re usually one in the same.
