Album Review: "Circuital" - My Morning Jacket

7.5/10

This week's album review is for My Morning Jacket's new album, Circuital. To be honest, this is the first album I've ever listened to by MMJ and I absolutely love it.  MMJ has been around for well over ten years and this is their sixth studio album.  This was released on May 31, 2011 and debuted as #5 on Billboard, which is the highest the band has ever been.  So, here's my reveiw.

The album opens with "Victory Dance".  This is probably my least favorite song off of this album.  It's not a terrible song by any means, but it has a darker feel than the rest of the album.  Next is the title track, "Circuital".  This song is filled with a lot of folk influences, and it reminds me a lot of a Fleet Foxes if they performed rock songs.  I like this song a lot, especially the vocals in it.  The third track is "The Day is Coming" and is one of my favorite tracks off of this album.  The vocals still sound similar to Fleet Foxes, which I love, and I love the piano in it too.  Following this is "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)".  This is one of their "folkiest" songs because of the acoustic guitar and the style of the singer's voice.  I'm reminded a lot of the Band of Horses from this song for some reason.  There's a strong resemblance between the two bands in this song.  Next is the song "Outta My System".  This is definitely one of the weakest songs on the album.  It's not a terrible song, but the lyrics kind of lack.  It doesn't do much for me.  Luckily, the song after "Outta My System" is "Holdin on to Black Metal".  This song is great and has a very retro feel to it because of the horn section and the kid's voices in the background.  After this is "First Light" which is another great song on this album.  I love the chord progression in the verses and this song reminds me a lot of the Black Lips.  The next song is "You Wanna Freak Out".  This song is ok.  Nothing really amazing about it, but it's not bad either.  In my opinion, it's just a filler.  Following this is "Slow, Slow Tune"  Again, this one is sort of bland too.  It's very mellow and chill, but it's just not amazing.  The album ends with the song "Movin Away" and it does a good job as the last track on the album.  It has a sad feel, but in itself, it's optimistic.  Overall, this album is very good and I'm definitely going to get more MMJ albums.

-Spencer