My Morning Jacket
The recent addition to the Moose office’s iTunes playlist is ‘Z’ by My Morning Jacket. I’m often cynical about rock music’s place in popular culture. Popular rock music in the last decade ceded the urban centers to underground hip hop and settled comfortably in the suburbs, following the MTV/VH1 crowd. That’s fine by me as I rarely listen to rock music anymore.
My Morning Jacket seem to be operating in the same arena as early U2. If U2 personify all that is bombastic and yet oddly sincere about rock’s superstars then Coldplay, a mere shadow of U2’s talent, are their poor cousins twice removed; like a sickly dog Coldplay elicit only my sympathy. And I’m not alone - I quote Jon Pareles, the New York Times’ fine music editor “Coldplay, the most insufferable band in the world.”
My Morning Jacket caught my ear because they seem to take chances with the standard rock formats, you know verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus to end, and make some interesting twists and turns along the way. The key word here is sincerity which can be taken two ways of course, as in syrupy, but I suspect that My Morning Jacket who operate in the alternative sphere have the integrity required to win over many people outside their immediate sphere. Coldplay should keep an eye over their shoulder.