It Still Moves


Cover of It Still Moves

On the 9th of September My Morning Jacket released their third studio album, this time on ATO records. The album was named It Still Moves and contains 12 tracks.
  1. Mahgeetah – 5:56
  2. Dancefloors – 5:38
  3. Golden – 4:39
  4. Master Plan – 5:05
  5. One Big Holiday – 5:21
  6. I Will Sing You Songs – 9:18
  7. Easy Morning Rebel – 5:09
  8. Run Thru – 5:45
  9. Rollin' Back – 7:50
  10. Just One Thing – 3:13
  11. Steam Engine – 7:26
  12. One in the Same – 6:23
The album features Jim James, Johnny Quaid, Two Tone Tommy, Danny Cash and  Patrick Hallahan. All songs are written and produced by Jim James.

In an interview (Nude as the News interview, September 2003) with Jim James, he said that the band was excited that the record was finally done and that since they hadn't fit on At Dawn the band had been kicking around some songs on the record for quite a while, namely One Big Holiday, Run Thru, Just One Thing and I Will Sing You Songs.

Recording
"This is the first record where we really feel we're a solid band. We've finally all come together to the point where we're all friends and we all know each other. We've gone through a couple drummers that didn't really work out, that threw the rhythm off. With the last two albums we'd build 'em piece by piece, lay down some initial tracks and then come back to work on them. We all had jobs and didn't have any time. We didn't feel we were the band we could be."
- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)
"I’ve been forced into retirement from the video store* due to a grueling tour schedule. The band takes a very momentary break from the road to document a collection of sprawling songs, most of which have grown from years of being played live ."
- Tom Blankenship
(am New York interview, October 2010)
* During the recording of the previous two records Blankenship worked as a video-store clerk (am New York) 

In a 2003 interview with Billboard Jim James explains how playing the songs live over an extended period before recording them helped the songs develop.
"That's one of the coolest things about being able to play so much before we made the record. When you initially write a song, it's one way. After you've played it live for a year, it totally turns into a different beast. It gets stronger and more powerful."
- Jim James
(Billboard interview, September 2003)

Album details
We like to think of it as psychedelic honey [laughter]. All over his face… we literally were up there for a day with the bear. We put costumes on him, we put tinsel on his head, tinsel on his feet, hats on him, gloves on his paws."
- Jim James, talking about the bear of the cover of It Still Moves
(JamBase interview, January 2004)
"Something called to me and I got this image in my head of the record cover. There's a barn out on the farm where we record and it's got this ceiling structure (visible on the cover) that blew my mind the first time I saw it. It reminded me of the inside of the belly of a whale. I don't know why but I had this vision of a bear in front of this ceiling. So, we rented this big 9-foot bear and moved him around and took pictures of him. There's something about his face. You put it down into black and white it's just an awesome image to me."
- Jim James, talking about the bear of the cover of It Still Moves
(JamBase interview, January 2004)
"I was looking up in the loft when we practised and imagined a bear in it"
- Jim James, talking about the cover photography
(The Age interview, March 2004)
Jim James: It was out at our old studio, which was on my cousin’s grandparents’ farm, in Shelbyville, Kentucky. We rented this big taxidermic grizzly bear, and it’s so funny when I think back on it, because you could just, like, Photoshop that kind of shit in. But we didn’t.
Sam Erickson: If we had tried to do it digitally, it just wouldn’t have been as cool.
Jim James: Yeah, I agree. I’m so glad we didn’t. But it’s hilarious to look back, in retrospect, and think about seven grown men hefting a stuffed grizzly bear up through this hole in the side of a barn.
(Vanity Fair interview, May 2009)

Sound
"As of late I'm not quite of liberty to say anything. Top secret. It will be rockin'. And it will be mysterious. And it will be quiet. And it will feature instruments and people."
- Jim James
(Pitchfork interview, August 2002)

 As stated in a 2004 interview with JamBase the band han help with the sound of horns on the record.
"We went down and did that with Willie Mitchell, who did stuff with Al Green and Anne Peebles. We flew down to Memphis and did it with them because we wanted it to sound as authentic and old as possible."
- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)

Influences


Critical reception
The song Run Thru is included in "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs"