Album Review: Is by My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket is... My Morning Jacket is one of my favorite bands, but I don't approach their new releases with any real expectations. It's now been a full two decades since their studio recordings felt vital - their fusing of twangy Americana and anthemic indie rock (anchored by one of the best vocalists ever) feeling unique and utterly beautiful. Since that era, their intermittent LPs have tended to be rather strong (perhaps excepting the ill-advised Evil Urges), and I'd even call The Waterfall II an excellent record, but something's been missing.

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In My Morning Jacket’s new album, Is, Jim James sings, “Watching the ending / Remembering how it started.” He’s talking about existential issues, but he could be talking about his band, given that 25 years and ten records is a good time to take stock (fortunately, there’s no ending here). It’s a sentiment that suits the LP well, given that My Morning Jacket find plenty of happiness but take time to focus, not only in their thinking, but also in their tight songs. James has said the title refers to being in the present, but little about Is sounds off-the-cuff; the group’s work for precision leads to an album that sounds loose and easy.

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After uncertainties about their future, My Morning Jacket sounded close to revivified on 2021's pointedly eponymous comeback record. Four years on, that sense of renewal is tethered to newly concentrated strategies on their 10th album. Though such a career milestone might have come freighted with pressure, Kentucky's classic-rock transcendentalists lightened the load, trusted their instincts and welcomed an outside producer's input, all to fertile and focusing ends.

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