My Morning Jacket Explores Cosmic Frontiers on Z: Rolling Stone Ranks the Band's Fourth Effort as One of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time  

Experience the 2005 Record in Audiophile Sound: Mobile Fidelity’s Hybrid SACD Is Strictly Limited to 2,500 Numbered Copies and Includes a Bonus Track

My Morning Jacket found itself at a crossroads as it prepared to create the record that would become its breakthrough. Two members had amicably departed on a prior tour, and their replacements were settling into the group’s chemistry. The Kentucky ensemble also felt a desire to change up the approaches that served it so well on its first three LPs. Getting out of that comfort zone, making great use of the recent recruits, and inviting a professional producer into the fold paid immense dividends in the form of the critically revered Z.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in mini-LP-style gatefold packaging, and strictly limited to 2,500 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD of Z presents the 2005 effort ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in audiophile-grade sound for the first time on disc. A considerable part of the record’s celebrated appeal and success — John Leckie’s outstanding production, which tamps down the group’s signature reverb and washes the music with organic warmth and cosmic textures — emerges with previously unheard openness, presence, and grandness. 

Playing with exceptional transparency and detail, this collectible edition frames leader Jim James and company’s fare amid deep-black backgrounds and expansive soundstages. Songs feel natural, golden, and seemingly endless in scope. You’ll hear the subtle nuances and smooth falsetto of James’ voice; liveliness of the studio environment; atmospheric flourishes of the effects pedals; wet splash and pounce of the percussion; soft sparkle of the keyboards; and the near-infinite tonality of the guitars like never before. Those benefits extend to the bonus track “Where to Begin.”

Following a professed desire to block out exterior noise and focus on what’s within you — the impetus that inspired James to choose Kathleen Lolley’s striking image for the cover art — My Morning Jacket concentrates on the matters at hand throughout Z. 

Taking its own advice, My Morning Jacket concentrates on the matters at hand throughout Z. Zooming beyond the Southern-styled rock and rustic balladry of its earlier LPs, the quintet — invigorated by newcomers Carl Broemel on guitar and Bo Koster on keyboards — invites exotic vocabularies and psychedelic ambience into its wheelhouse all the while tightening up structures and building upon past achievements. A conscious decision to ensconce itself in a studio that would eliminate distractions led the group to a remote area of the Catskill Mountains and away from its usual confines of Louisville, Kentucky. The final piece that locked everything into place? Co-producer Leckie. 

A veteran of Abbey Road Studios who worked in various capacities on albums by the likes of George Harrison, Pink Floyd and Wings, Leckie touted an impressive engineering and production resume that included efforts by the Stone Roses, XTC, Muse, and Radiohead by the time James met him before the sessions began. Leckie’s outsider perspective helped spur My Morning Jacket to glorious heights and change how the band operated.

Z testifies on behalf of the brilliance of that collaboration, with adventurous arrangements and forays into reggae, R&B, and soul-jazz taking listeners on wondrous journeys into outer galaxies. The burbling undercurrents and calming bass lines on the opening “Wordless Chorus” — a song true to its name — plunges you into the depths of a vast ocean. James’ rising “aaaah” releases ultimately give way to “whooo” howls that speak to the liberating feelings at hand. A quick coda that nicks Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” underlines the mood.

From there, Z continues to delight and surprise. Songs evoke rays of light pouring through a prism and projecting wide spectrums of color; the majestic glow of the flashing aurora borealis on a crisp night; the vast expanse of desert-plains horizons and towering sight of a tree-dense forest. As much about settings and transformation as melody, Z pulls you into its crevices, mysteries, and chasms. As tour guides and groove sorcerers, James and friends don tophats and wave magic wands. 

Surrender to the teeter-totter variations of the sincere “It Beats 4 U,” an ode complete with whistling from multi-hyphenate musician Andrew Bird. Shimmy and shake as “What a Wonderful Man” sparks with lightning-strike joy and dials up the crunch. Bob to the hypnotic reggae riffs and springboard rhythms of “Off the Record” as it casts out gloom and rejoices with happiness, the song’s second half even hinting at the Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” as it dives down an experimental black hole. Embrace the miniature piano ballet that is “Knot Comes Loose,” delivered by James in a churchy voice. 

“Listen, listen,” he enthusiastically instructs on the building “Gideon.” Fantastic advice for an album that never repeats itself or grows stale.