The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #278

#278: "Golden" (2003) - My Morning Jacket


Hailing from Kentucky, MyMorning Jacket (horrible band name, no matter if they got it from the initials MMJ on a patch they found after their favorite bar burned down) now makes critic-charming music with electronic effects and other weird, off-center instrumentation and arrangements. They've morphed into America's own Radiohead--only, their singer's voice isn't up to the new task at hand, and the tunes--though innovative--just aren't very good. Not as good as they used to be. They used to sound vaguely Southern--and that's not a pejorative comment, either.

On "Golden," (from their major-label debut It Still Moves--still their best record), MMJ replicate the sound of the early evening in the early fall in a drive out in the country--or their work here could also easily work as a sunrise song, too--least that's what I hear. In spirit (if not completely in sound), it reminds me of Dylan's "Meet Me in the Morning," but with a better band. The echo and reverb are pushed to the fore, in the vocals and (I believe) in the steel guitar, and the drummer brushes out a steady-drivin' rhythm on his snare. The instrumentation is country, but the delicate singing has more of an American Indie sound (with just a touch of the folky singer-songwriter), and when released, this song--and the entire album--sounded truly like no other band out there (no, not even Wilco--not in 2003).

Though they used country instrumentation, the vocals didn't twang, so they definitely didn't sound like any band from Music Row--or The Band, for that matter. The band's sound was too full and its musicians too talented to be just another Indie band. Mid-2000 MMJ were more closely akin to the '70s band America--except that MMJ wrote better and smarter songs. No more, though. Now, MMJ are second-rate Wilco (who themselves are a second-rate something or another, I'm not sure what exactly). MMJ's not completely done for, as they could always--in five or so years--travel in the early mornin' or late afternoon back down to that barn in Kentucky where they recorded this song, soak in the ambiance, and try to return to their golden form. It won't happen. But it might. And it will. I just need to play this song again, and I'll believe. If only for a few minutes.