Start Your Week Right: With My Morning Jacket – Steam Engine

Another week is upon us, and you might be dreading the workweek ahead. However, look on the bright side: each week gets us closer to the release of Circuital. If that’s not something to look forward to, then I don’t know what is!

Photo by: Lock R

Let’s check out what we got in store for this week at The Countdown. Today is Easy Morning Rebel Day, and we’ll round off the end of the week with Steam Engine Day on Friday. That’s tracks 7-11 from 2003’s It Still Moves. Then we’ll be moving on to 2005’s Z.

“The Z album” is definitely a fan and critic favorite, primarily because it exhibits My Morning Jacket’s more experimental side (if you will). Even if you aren’t the type to brand genres on music, few can deny that Z showed us MMJ’s versatility and drive for reaching new, creative heights.

It’s not the dream that makes you weak.
It’s not the night that makes you sleep.
But it’s a voice, and it’s a choice
To call you out or stay at home

Today, we’ll look at track number 11 off It Still Moves: "Steam Engine." Not only is this track the origin of a certain, respectable (EDIT: that's questionable, haha) music blog’s title, it is also one of MMJ’s more romantic songs. As one of the longest songs both lyrically and in duration, "Steam Engine" takes its time and builds a “slow burn” that leads us to the song’s emotional peak:

Your skin looks good in the moonlight
And god damn those shaky knees
The fact that my heart’s beating
Is all the proof you need

From here on out it’s pure emotion. Haunting vocals that seem to reminisce about a passionate love make Steam Engine just one of those tunes that you can’t forget.

Riding south on I75 and heading for my parents’ house, I can’t help but think that each coming week will be more exciting than the last. We’ve got several downloads of live music from My Morning Jacket from 2010’s Terminal 5 shows, a new album and a growing summer tour to look forward to. Can’t complain!

Hope you enjoy your week and continue to enjoy MMJ!