A song like “Xmas Curtain,” from their second album At Dawn - released about four months before Is This It - has the grit of prime era Skynyrd and Allman Brothers, but it places them in a new technological and philosophical context. MMJ was also progressive, in that they took the blueprint of beard-y, high-lonesome, twangy guitar music and dared to reimagine it for a new age. MMJ existed in a parallel narrative - like the big-city acts, they drew on the traditions of 1970s rock, only they were a genuine Southern rock band rather than proponents of vintage post-punk cosplay. The early years of My Morning Jacket’s career coincide with the “return of rock!” hubbub of the early aughts, when NYC bands like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs commanded much of the music media’s attention. Here are the 30 songs I consider to be My Morning Jacket’s best. (Spring is the third reason I’m fixated on MMJ right now.) But also because we’re in the midst of early spring, and My Morning Jacket is always a band I put on once the snow melts away and I’m able to hang outside again. This is true, of course, because of the pandemic. This leads me to the second reason why MMJ is on my brain lately: This is one of the most talented live rock bands of the last 25 years, and I desperately yearn to see extremely gifted rock bands in concert right now. This is conveyed musically on At Dawn by a heart-busting, reverb-drenched sprawl that would come to define them, as well as numerous classics that remain fixtures of their setlists. Just the title alone evokes something essential about the MMJ ethos - it suggests the start of a journey, bathed in gorgeous yellow light, toward an uncertain but exciting destination. While it was preceded by their 1999 debut, The Tennessee Fire, At Dawn in many ways feels like the actual first MMJ record. The first is the 20th anniversary of their second album, At Dawn, which is this week. There are at least three reasons for this. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about My Morning Jacket.
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