My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

Before the release of fifth studio album Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James said he wanted to "get away from normal rock and roll sounds". Thanks for the warning, Jim, but nobody could have foreseen a departure as radical as this. Initially shocking, Evil Urges is a grower, but it’s hard not to think that many of the wholesale changes are unnecessary and flippant, resulting in an album lacking consistency and struggling with a crippling identity crisis. From the opening Prince-aping title track to the bombastic Muse circa Black Hole-esque Highly Suspicious and the electro-embracing Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Part 2, Evil Urges may win MMJ a new audience, but it will undoubtedly alienate many of their existing fanbase in the process. Whether it’s a shameless shot at the mainstream or just a hugely confused record is unclear, but this is one of the biggest disappointments of the year so far.