What's been missing in MMJ's sound, until now, is a strong sense of personal expressiveness. James has said in recent interviews that he's not always quite sure of his own identity, and that vagueness has shown in his songwriting. But on "Evil Urges," James remedies that. He leads the band firmly into the album's songs, making sure each solidifies into a strong statement rather than just billowing around in a cloud of influences. In these settings, his philosophical musings become more grounded; they seem to come from the flesh, not just a disembodied, blissed-out mind.
"I need a human right by my side," James sings on the album's second track, and among other things, "Evil Urges" is a chronicle of that aspiration. James puts on various costumes -- the soul brother, the country crooner, the indie brat -- to find himself and connect with others. Playing around with pop styles becomes a metaphor for the search for human connection. The band has fun figuring out what each offers, turning silly on the funk breakdown "Highly Suspicious," seductive on the countrypolitan "Librarian" and plain sweet on the yacht-rocking "Thank You Too!"
James' lyrical expressions of fulfilled or disappointed longing combine with the extroverted song structures on "Evil Urges" to make this a sexy bunch of songs, even when the desire expressed is for an unnamed god or for humanity as a whole. (That hot bespectacled bookworm does get her due.) Already beloved by a growing cult, MMJ reaches out in a different way here, becoming more accessible without shrinking its ambitions.
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A woman in full
My Morning Jacket's oversharing happens on a major scale, as the band offers up its magnanimous sound as a source of inspiration and a way into love. Martha Wainwright is more traditional in her methods of self-exposure, though she's never hackneyed. The daughter of two famous singer-songwriters and the sister of another, Wainwright has spent much time struggling to figure out how to best stand her own ground. Now she's not only found her place, she's set it ablaze.
On "I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too," her second solo album on the Zoe/Rounder label, Wainwright dares to do what far too few artists can in today's waxed-and-Spanxed cultural climate. She gives ferocious, tender voice to female desire, conjuring scenes and dreams that don't fit within the tightly managed image of femininity so dominant today.
