Regions of Light and Sound of God
by Jim James
ATO Records
Produced by: Jim James
wwwJimJames.com
If you’ve ever listened to any My Morning Jacket album you may have wondered where all that diverse musical inspiration originates from. A singular source or more of a collective effort from all band members?
This album- perhaps – suggestively answers that question as MMJ’s bearded-frontman perfectly fuses prodigious sounds of classical, alternative rock, folk, funk, soul and jazz into a singular cohesion of climatic musical joy. Just like many MMJ albums have done.
The piano-lead opener, “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U)” emanates James’ curiosity of life and his ability to harmonize vowels to a progressive funky bass rhythm.
The album’s first single, “Know Til Now,” is a trippy 6+ minute jam who’s random arrangement reminisces MMJ’s “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt.2” and is equally contagious to all the senses.
There’s also the sensual crooning on “A New Life” which starts one way and ends another way, the smooth and sultry progression of “Actress” and the uplifting instrumental “Exploding” which provides depth.
Any song on this album – to the untrained ear – could easily be mistaken as a new MMJ song. And although that’s not really the case, it was, however, crafted by the one musical wizard behind all of them.
– Jason Ashcraft
* This album review will also appear in Performer Magazine’s February 2013 issue and at PerformerMag.com
Louisville Scuttlebutt 
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