My Morning Jacket - Run Thru

Oh shit run / Oh shit run / Oh shit run / Through the ghetto / They will hear you / Morning bell / Tolls at home / Rings loud back / Where I come from / Calls me back / Often times / Oh I would hope and pray / She calls me back / Then faith came my way / Oh shit run, oh, oh / It's what appears to me...

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My Morning Jacket’s career has spanned over three decades since their debut in 1999, and during the course of that time their sound has changed many times over. It’s tough to define the band’s genre as a whole; they manage to stay within the realm of indie rock while also borrowing heavily from the sounds of psychedelic rock, folk, and even country for a period of time. Although consistency varies in sound between albums, the quality in production is unwavering as My Morning Jacket prove to be jack-ets of all trades (badumtss). As such, the band has found continued success throughout every adaptation of the band and has even survived a handful of lineup changes, keeping a constant core in vocalist and rhythm guitar Jim James as well as bass player Tom Blankenship. While the subject for their best phase remains up for debate, my personal preference lies in the band’s third release It Still Moves, which fuses the roots of folk and southern music gained from their Kentucky upbringing with the polish and elegance that indie rock delivers. Even though I knocked them for their inconsistency in sound across albums, the one thing I commend My Morning Jacket for on It Still Moves is their consistent sound between songs. The unfiltered impact of the percussion, the fuzzy effects of the guitar, and the high register vocals from Jim James that to me embody modern characteristics of fabled folk legends like Neil Young. Both vocalists have a delicate approach to their words, but still shine through the supporting cast and place a point of emphasis that may otherwise go unnoticed in a talented group like Crosby, Stills, & Nash or My Morning Jacket. With all that said, one of the songs I feel stands out most in the track listing of It Still Moves has to be Run Thru, a modest track that appears late in the album with nothing to prove at face value. Once it begins, it’s clear this song is unlike the others on the album. It has a tinge of melancholy that I find is hardly present anywhere else on the album, which certainly doesn’t hinder the totality of the album’s sound but merely accents the appearance of Run Thru on its own. There’s more vigor, a closer relationship to blues rock unheard of for the band to that point. The song’s hypnotic trudge is one I have searched for in other albums by My Morning Jacket, but no song I have found manages to eclipse what Run Thru has going for it. 

oh shit run...

"Fiddlecastro, with no regard for human life." - Kevin Harlan

My Morning Jacket - Run Thru