Z
Cover of Z
On October 4th 2005 My Morning Jacket released their fourth studio album on ATO Records. The album was named Z and contains 10 tracks.
- Wordless Chorus – 4:12
- It Beats 4 U – 3:46
- Gideon – 3:39
- What a Wonderful Man – 2:25
- Off the Record* – 5:33
- Into the Woods - 5:21
- Anytime – 3:56
- Lay Low – 6:05
- Knot Comes Loose – 4:02
- Dondante – 8:01
All songs are written by Jim James, except Off the Record, which is credited to Jim James, Tom Blankenship and Patrick Hallahan. The album was produced by Jim James and John Leckie.
The Japanese pressing of the album contains the B-side Chills; digital copies include the other b-side How Could I Know as well.
Recording
Allaire Studios
Z is the first album where the band choose to record away from the Quaid family farm which had served as the inspiration for their first three albums. Instead, My Morning Jacket decided to record in New York's Allaire Studios, nestled deep in the Catskill Mountains of New York. In an 2005 interview Tom Blankenship explained that it didn't feel right to go back to the studio that was used for the previous records and that after having added Bo Koster and Carl Broemel to the band, the band felt ready to do things differently (RS). More about the band's time at Allaire Studios can be found here.
Production
Production of the album was headed by John Leckie, famous for previous work with bands such as The Stone Roses and Radiohead. This is the first My Morning Jacket album to feature a producer, as Jim James had assumed the production duties on the band's previous efforts.
Emotional aspect
In a 2010 interview with am New York Tom Blankenship looks back on previous records, commenting on how recording Z affected the band.
"I’m 27 and can’t shake the feeling that this next album will be my last. This album is the sound and feeling of the band wordlessly battling the dark elements and coming through the other side in one stronger piece."- Tom Blankenship
(am New York interview, October 2010)
Album details
The title & the album cover art
Both the album title and cover art has been discussed, in a 2005 interview Jim James talks about the title, ultimately saying that he speaks through music and lyrics and that he wanted to get away from speaking with the title of the album and use something that didn't mean anything at all. In a 2006 interview Tom Blankenship commented on the album as well, explaining some misconceptions about the title, read more here. The artist behind the album cover art is Louisville artist Kathleen Lolley, in an interview with LEO weekly from April 2010 Lolley said that she was very honored that Jim James asked her to do the cover, however James originally selected another image, more about that here.
Sound/themes
In a 2005 interview Jim James explained that the band has always tried to progress and that while Z definitely was the most different album they had done, he didn't feel it wasn't radically so (PM). James also stated in a 2008 interview that he considers Z to be a bridge between the older sound and the newer sound (msnbc). Read more about the sound here.
Influences
Critical reception
Digital Rights ManagmentInterviewer: Z has been out for about 18 months now. What's the strangest take on it you've heard so far?
Patrick Hallahan: Somebody emailed me and said Z was the bible of the universe. That's pretty fucking weird [laughs]
Interviewer: How does it feel to be an apostle?
Patrick Hallahan: I had no idea I was an apostle, so it might take some getting used to before I can answer that
As stated in a Spin Magazine interview Sony BMG, which distributed Z, went against the band's wishes and encoded the CD with copy-protection spyware that made consumers who put the CD into their computers vulnerable to hackers. According to the same interview the band choose to finance a disc-replacement program out of their own pockets.
"Just another example of major-label stupidity, they shot themselves in the foot, they shot us in the foot."- Jim James
(Spin interview, May 2008)
The band's manager, Mike Martinovich, expressed their dissatisfaction with the technology and it was abandoned on subsequent releases. The band themselves provided information on their website about how to bypass the software, and also offered to burn individual copies of the album for fans, free of copy-protection software.
More coming soonish...
