I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-It Still Moves (2003).

I discovered My Morning Jacket through their awesome live album Okonokos.  Most of that album comprised songs from their previous disc, Z.  But there were a number of tracks from this record as well.  So I was thrilled to put this in for the first time and recognize a number of these epic tracks (4 songs are over 6 minutes).

It Still Moves is a soaring, gorgeous record of folk rock plus.  Some of their tracks are rooted in Americana, but they have wonderful touches of psychedelia and soaring sounds (choruses, guitars, voices).  It’s a great combination that never settles into one style of sound, and as much as it stays out of the reach of commercialism, it embraces catchiness.

And for an album that seems like it might resist the average listener, there’ some amazing stuff here.  The opening three songs are absolute stunners–catchy and interesting.  “Magheeta” is a slowish opener; “Dancefloors'” has a great riff and ends with a cool boogie of horns and pianos; and “Golden” is a shuffle song with terrific harmonies.

“Masterplan” is the first really slow song, but it has a dramatic buildup that is wonderful.  It’s followed by the first of the soaring guitar songs on the disc.  “One Big Holiday” opens with a cool tight guitar riff which turns into a soaring guitar riff of joy.  The second one is “Run Thru” which is one of my favorite songs of the past few years.  It opens with a slow soaring guitar riff that is totally catchy.  By midway it turns into a dancey discoey song for a few measures and then returns with the great riff.  It’s excellent.

“I Will Sing You Songs” is a 9 minute slow boiler of a track.  It’s very slow, almost lazily paced, but it’s never dull (credit Jim James’  amazing voice for keeping the whole proceeding interesting).  “Rollin’ Back” opens a bit like “Waiting for the Worms” from Pink Floyd the Wall (soaring oooh ooohs), but quickly settles into a slow roots song.

The end of the disc is a bit slow and meandering (the last song especially is practically a sleepytime ballad) but it works for the overall feel of the disc.  The whole enterprise is a bit long–it’s hard to listen all at one setting.  But nevertheless, it’s a great record with some amazing songs ion it.

[READ: May 9, 2011] “He Knew”

I rather enjoyed the last story by Antrim that I read, but I didn’t care for this one at all.  And that was pretty much because I didn’t care about the characters at all.

The story is about an out of work actor, Stephen (who is on antidepressants) and his very tall wife Alice (who is on Valium).  They’re sort of pathetic and it’s not even entirely clear if the like each other (or is that the anxiety speaking?).  She accuses him of wanting to sleep with every woman he talks to, and he looks longingly at most other women he sees.

When Stephen is not crippled by Dread, he takes Alice out shopping.  They buy expensive things, take their meds, have a public fight and then try to make up.  And really that’s it.  They were so unempathetic, that I really didn’t care what happened to them.

In fact, even the way they met was less than interesting: they met in an elevator and he remarked that she was very tall and yet somehow she wasn’t instantly turned off by him.

This was a misfire.