Z

I didn’t discover MMJ or this LP until the middle of last year, and have been kicking myself ever since for not seeking it out earlier. ‘Z’ is an immediate, enveloping world tucked inside 46 minutes of incredibly-executed music at the intersection of indie, psych, and country of all things. The homey, trebley twang of the guitars against the lurking, ethereal synths and backing tracks is a hypnotic combination – couple that in with pristine production where every instrument shines (and no sonic corner is left in the dark), and you have an incredibly beautiful LP to begin with. It’s not just the technical prowess that makes this album, though. Every track is a world unto itself, wholly unique and willing to twist inwards on its established logic on a dime. Yet, in spite of their idiosyncrasies, each song contributes to the overall universe and feels like the logical next stop on the tour ‘Z’ is leading you on. Rarely do I listen to just one track from this LP and call it good, the flow and execution of this album demand full listens and I’m usually more than happy to oblige. I’m rambling now but this is what the ur-text of what an album is to me – not some loose collection of tracks by the same artist, but an incredibly intentional series of songs that build something well beyond the sum of their parts. It’s what so many of Dimery’s picks and user additions here lack, where one or two standout tracks dominate over the rest. Good songs come from good albums, but it takes so much more than good songs to make a good album if that makes any sense. The LP is an art form all itself and one that is incredibly difficult to pull off! Okay, rant over. It’s rare nowadays to encounter an LP so thoroughly thought out front to back, and it’s uplifting to see one so deserving make it on to the list. Even more incredible when it was clear that frontman Jim James had said this was meant to be the band (and his) last album as he dealt with the suicides of two band members and his own depression. To channel all that pain and choose such a beautiful, exuberant statement on life rather than despair is a pretty metal choice, and one that seems to have put the band and its members in a much better headspace. Thankful we still have MMJ creating excellent music two decades on, and that there are bands out there with a clear idea of what an album can truly be.

I have always loved MMJ, Z Gets a lot of love but I’ve always been more of an Evil Urges man. Either way killer album

My Morning Jacket has made several impressive albums full of psychedelic indie rock album with heavenly singing by front man Jim James. Z is one of their best and certainly my favorite. Of the ten songs only three are good "Into the Woods", "Anytime" and "Dondante". The other seven are not good, but fantastic. A five star review guaranteed.

Every time I listen to My Morning Jacket, I think to myself, "I need to listen to more My Morning Jacket." They're really, really good. And this is an excellent album. 4 stars.

Why does this guy sing like a cartoon manatee.

Incredible album. It's simply gorgeous throughout with amazing lyricism and guitar work.

The album starts off so strong that I don't even care it falls off quickly. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it after their live album failed to move me

Enjoyed the album. Some very good songs. The last song, 'Dondante' was by far my favorite

This started off a bit low-key for me... not surprising for music like this from the early 2000s. I kept warming up to it as it progressed and I was really digging the catchier parts (like Anytime). Overall a solid listen!

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Wordless chorus, What a wonderful man, Laylow, Dondante

Livelier and lighter and more energetic than some of the darker and more rough-hewn earlier records, which one mighta liked better overall. This might have seemed too polished somehow at the time but it holds up very well, seeming today most listenable and quite entertaining and interesting. Their merging of country/Americana aspects with indie rock tropes and structures was as effective as anyone's, though this record seeks to move on those frameworks and is more smoothly integrated into something distinct (as befits a new lineup). But they were almost a category / sub-genre of one for quite a bit of their run. James is a proper frontman, with a unique voice that conveys deep and edgy yearning, and he knows how to modulate well and appropriately – the high lonesome crooning on "Knot Comes Loose," say – nearly all the time. Very much should have been on list proper. Maybe too American for the Brit-heavy editors. One would pick this over any of the other records from 2005 (with the possible exception of Richard Hawley's). It Still Moves would also be a very strong candidate for inclusion. Thanks, recommender; one hadn't listened to MMJ in quite some time, despite their being one's most listened-to bands 2005-2010.

Should absolutely take the place of any flavor of the month indie release that represented 2005 from the original book

I first got into My Morning Jacket in the early 2010’s, when Circuital was on a bunch of ‘best of’ lists. I really enjoyed Circuital, and when I was reading up on MMJ, I saw that Z was supposed to be really good, so I bought that too. I know I’ve listened to Z in its entirety, but for the life of me, I can’t remember anything about it. I think it’s one of those albums that I always meant to go back to, but just never got around to it. I’m really pumped that I have an excuse to check it out again today! Damn, I really missed out by not revisiting this album until now. MMJ isn’t the type of music that I typically gravitate towards, but man, they’re excellent at what they do. Jim James’s vocals were excellent, the guitar work was great, and the overall mood and atmosphere of this album really stood out. I thought the songwriting was really good too, and the music suited the lyrics really well. Even though MMJ draws on various influences to craft their sound, Z is incredibly cohesive, held together by its themes of loss. I don’t think I could pick out a favorite song from this album, but the run from “Gideon” to “Off the Record” is immaculate. I wasn’t that big on “Into the Woods” (I really hate circus-sounding music) and “Dondante,” but Z is still a really strong album.

Alternative country, indie pop, indie rock, soul, space rock. Ni fu ni fa.

My Morning Jacket is always a pleasure but I nonetheless find there music to lack stickiness. I couldn’t hum you a single one of their tunes, or even list any of their song titles. Even this, WHICH I JUST LISTENED TO, I strain to think of what it sounded like.

Fine 3

Not badddd

An easy, kind of cool listen.

It's a toughie. Some of this is incredible, experimental, emotional. At other times it's the blandest thing this side of Coldplay. It's half a perfect album?

I thought this was good, clearly a lot of talent behind it. Stylistically it felt pretty unfocused. A lot of reminiscent styles that needed to cohere better around some core identity.

This is a pretty solid album. Never heard of my morning jacket before this but was pleasantly surprised. This had strong similarities to fleet foxes but overall less folky. This was a solid album that I would revisit and try and listen to their other albums. Nice addition. 7.5/10

It's fine. Don't really remember much after listening. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Pretty good

The usual millennial indie rock bullshit. I usually refer to notably millennial music as "bullshit" but I promise it's not in a derogatory way, there's just a lot of it. Anyway. Z rarely stays in one gear for so long. Jim James' vocals are seemingly the focal point for much of the album though, even when he doesn't have much to say. Solid dynamics and exploration of styles, but ultimately feels like My Morning Jacket doesn't have a "wow" factor to them. Except for the closing track, which crescendos into a nice explosion. Otherwise though, I wish I had more to grab onto with Z. Like a slightly less-interesting Radiohead. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: I think there's enough millennial indie rock bullshit on the list between The Zutons, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Elbow, The National, and a few others.

I will give them credit: the first song is accurate "Wordless Chorus". Guess they couldn't find appropriate words for it. THe album has a lot of different styles in it. Some work, some are just... okay. I know people called this their "Ok Computer." I don't know if I would go that far, but I thought it had a wide range and showed a lot of promise. Top tracks: "It Beats For You," "What A Wonderful Man," "Laylow," "Dondante"

very mellow. a good monday morning album. 3.

“Wordless Chorus” opens *Z* in a way I’m not entirely sure how to read at first. The layered voices and slow build suggest the band reaching toward the kind of subtle psychedelia and studio experimentation that clearly influenced them during this period. But the understated tones of that opener are maybe a little too "streamlined" to fully hit the mark in my eyes. “It Beats 4 U” feels a bit more focused to me, and I can’t help hearing a trace of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" in its clipped rhythm and slightly anxious groove. “Gideon,” meanwhile, lands heavier than the songs around it, even as the production keeps things somewhat modern. Clearly the standout track in this album. After a jarring dive into a somewhat awkward-sounding garage-rock cut comes “Off The Record”, the album’s most obvious stylistic detour. It's a very cool track graced by a raucous, infectious chorus, but the relaxed reggae and dub touches in that song also make me think the group was deliberately trying on different sounds rather than committing to just one direction -- and this is actually also exemplified in the bunch of less memorable songs pestering the rest of this record. By the time I reach the closer, “Dondante,” I’m left with a long, somber finish that feels reflective more than climactic, as if the band is quietly sorting through all those influences instead of tying them up neatly. Interesting, sure. But essential? Final verdict: My Morning Jacket's*Z* is noughts rock music that's pretty much a mix between The Flaming Lips and early Radiohead. Interestingly, the record also explores the sort of elegant folk craft that would later make Fleet Foxes famous in a couple of songs -- they have mixed results in that department, but you can't blame them for showing the way, I imagine. Apart from that, what Jim James et al. are doing for the most part is playing southern rock channeled through vaguely defined "indie" tones. Think Kings Of Leon before those other southern "choir boys" ended up selling their soul to the music industry devils, with a few choice stylistic curveballs here and there, such as the obvious reggae influences on "Off The Record". Most of those styles were popular at the time of the band's heyday and still sound decent today, I guess. Yet I doubt most current listeners will consider *Z* as the 'all-time classic' My Morning Jacket's fans think it is. I will conclude my tentative review by saying this: I find it pretty ironic that a lot of users have complained that the original list contained too many British post-punk albums from the eighties when this supplementary list now includes so many examples of so-called "indie rock" from the noughts -- a decade where the term had clearly lost some of its original meaning, diluted by intents lacking a clear punch at times. There's a reason that crank-wave revival surged ten years later -- for me, it's because listeners were obviously getting tired of the "preciousness" of all those famous noughts rock artists, at a time when the world was getting darker and needed music to reflect such situation a little more. I'm not necessarily saying My Morning Jacket played that infamous strand of "landfill indie" plaguing this particular decade -- at least I'm not going as far as stating this *for sure*. Yet some of the lesser songs on this record dangerously come close to it. And some of the artists selected by the users definitely fall into that category (or into its adjacent pop-punk / emo one, also diluting the original intents of the genres they took inspiration from). Under that light, I doubt the users list is right to select each and every act in those derivative genres marking that era. You can't blame the original list for its arguable British / 80s / Post-Punk bias when an American / 00s / "soft-indie" bias appears here instead. You can subjectively care for such rock styles, sure, because of memories of times when you were younger. But that doesn't mean you need to list those acts from A to... Z. I'll see myself out. -----------> 3/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 79 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 99 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 202 (including this one) ---- Émile, tu trouveras ma dernière réponse sous le *Inside* de Bo Burnham

Turned to grey sludge by the end. No personality.

I was so thoroughly bored with this album. None of the songs had any excitement or character. The vocals were drowned out completely by the music. Not great at all.

Fitting album name, because ZzZzzz.

Some of the worst singing by this vocalist. This band is better than this album.

I wasn't very happy with the proposal. I don't doubt it's interesting because it has good music, but as the songs progress, it feels like it's meandering. Ultimately, it's not for me. Rating: 1.5