Z (My Morning Jacket album)

Production

Production was headed by John Leckie, famous for previous work with bands such as The Fall, The Stone Roses and Radiohead. This is the first My Morning Jacket album to feature a producer, as vocalist Jim James had assumed the production duties on the band's previous albums. The album marks another first, as the band recorded away from the Quaid family farm which had served as the inspiration for their first three albums. Instead, My Morning Jacket decided to record in New York's Allaire Studios, nestled deep in the Catskill Mountains. The change of scenery, influence of an experienced producer, and the addition of two new members contributed heavily to the transformation of the band's sound.

Composition

The album's first song, "Wordless Chorus", is a staple in the band's live performances and has been played live with musician Erykah Badu. Although the fourth track, "What a Wonderful Man" has an upbeat, happy sound, singer Jim James stated in "Velocity Weekly" that the song was written as a tribute to friend (and former bandmate) Aaron Todovich, who had committed suicide. The closing track, "Dondante", is also a tribute to his friend Aaron Todovich, as explained in the VH1 Storytellers performance of the track on June 3, 2011.

Digital rights management

The CD was one of the more high-profile releases in 2005 featuring digital rights management technology to prohibit owners from playing the music on a computer or creating digital copies. United States pressings of this CD contain MediaMax CD-3 by SunnComm. The band's manager, Mike Martinovich, expressed their dissatisfaction with the technology and it was abandoned on subsequent releases. The band themselves provided information on their website about how to bypass the software, and also offered to burn individual copies of the album for fans, free of copy-protection software.

Critical reception

The album was the second highest rated album of 2005 according to Metacritic, behind Sufjan Stevens' Illinois; the album has a total score of 90 out of 100.

Technically, both Z and Illinois were tied for the highest Metacritic rating in 2005, with a score of 90 each. However, the score for Illinois was based on a larger overall number of reviews: 40, compared to 31 for Z.

Online music magazine Pitchfork Media placed Z at number 146 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s, calling it My Morning Jacket's OK Computer. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 457 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The magazine has also ranked the album 31st on its list of the 100 best albums of the 2000s and 23rd of the 40 greatest stoner albums ever.

Track listing

All songs written by Jim James, except where noted:

1. "Wordless Chorus" – 4:12
2. "It Beats 4 U" – 3:46
3. "Gideon" – 3:39
4. "What a Wonderful Man" – 2:25
5. "Off the Record" (James, Tom Blankenship, Patrick Hallahan) – 5:33
6. "Into the Woods" – 5:21
7. "Anytime" – 3:56
8. "Lay Low" – 6:05
9. "Knot Comes Loose" – 4:02
10. "Dondante" – 8:01

The U.S.and Japanese pressing of the album contains the B-side "Chills"; digital copies include the other b-side "How Could I Know" (length 5:27) as well.

Personnel

Release history

†This edition includes the bonus track "Chills"