I miss the soaring grain silo reverb of Jim James' voice heard to best effect on 2001's At Dawn.
That album contained the lyric: "It's just the way that he sings, not the words that he says"; an acknowledgement of the power of his vocals as well as being consolation for listeners struggling to decipher the lyrics.
Almost a decade and a half on, the level of mysticism and magic of this Kentucky-based band is, I'm sorry to report, much reduced.
MMJ's seventh album, their first in four years, finds them moving towards a more conventional soft-rock sound with strong elements of what I can only define as 70s soul.
These long-hairs from Louisville appear to have come to this new material after applying plenty of shampoo and conditioner.
The ten tracks are commercial and accessible to the point of being saccharine. As for James' voice, well, it just sounds ordinary, like a bad boy playing nice.
Here's a brief track by track summary:
Believe (Nobody Knows) - one for the stadium shows - altogether now: "believe-believe-believe-belieeeeeeeeeve".
Compound Fracture - begins like Kate Bush's Running Up The Hill and descends into jangly hum-along retro-pop.
Like A River orchestral pop - leaves fall, rivers flow, birds fly - life goes on. Next.
In Its Infancy (The Waterfall) title track reduced to parenthesis - synthesisers, harmonies - moving to the West Coast.
Get The Point pretty acoustic break-up tune with lover boy bent on softening the blow "I wish you all the love in this world and beyond".
Spring (Among The Living) done hibernating - time for a change of season; this one rocks out quite effectively - played live this could easily stretched to a 20 minute plus Southern Rock jam.
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Thin Line "it's a thin line between love and wasting my time" - this brings Jim's' soul boy falsetto fully into play and is only a few notes away from being a remake of Gloria Gaynor's 'Never Can Say Goodbye'.
Big Decisions the first single, James sings with a hint of exasperation : "I get tired of trying always to be nice" but this fails to show his nasty side. More guitars please!
Tropics (Erase Traces) erase and repeat, this has guitars but the solos are soooo predictable - the fourth track with a bracketed sub-title; it's like they can't even decide what to call these tunes.
Only Memories Remain - more slow sweet soul - this would be better if Al Green was singing.
My sad conclusion is that Waterfall lacks any genuine passion and sounds suspiciously like a band going through the motions.
Get out clause: This may be a grower, in which case I'll gladly eat my words.
Groups need to move on but give me the less polished version of MMJ any day.
Your silo or mine?
MMJ website
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