09 February 2006

8+

"Dondante" by My Morning Jacket which clocks in at 8:01

The fact that I picked My Morning Jacket's album Z as my top album of 2005 doesn't really say that I'm secretly some born again hippie...no, what it really reveals is my standard classic rock musical upbringing. What I mean is that My Morning Jacket, while they hang out at Bonnaroo all the time, is much more 'classic rock' than they are jam band. There's less Dead-like noodling in their music and more bluesy Led Zeppelin kinds of things. "Dondante" is a great example of this as it invokes Zeppelin throughout (as well as Jeff Buckley perhaps). It's the perfect end to the perfect album - eight minutes of musical bliss (okay, if you're counting the music does end before the eight minute mark but for some reason the track goes to 8:01 and thus qualifies for this whole 8+ series thing) that guides your emotions from level to soaring. Actually, the song has a feeling of slowly taking off, leaving the ground, and then gliding right along with the guitars and vocal stylings of Jim James. "Dondante" just might be the song that's played in the heavens when stars are born...no, "Dondante" is the sound of a God being born. No, it's just a really good song and I was being a little over the top there.

(the picture is from HERE)

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
British Sea Power - "Lately"
Islands - "Swans"
Isolée - "Pillowtalk"
Animal Collective - "Banshee Beat"
Wilderness - "Post Plethoric Rhetoric"
The Wedding Present - "Interstate 5"
Sleater-Kinney - "Let's Call It Love"

4 comments:

Justin said...

I played this album for a friend and when we got to the "loud" part in the tune, he was like "uhm....WOW..."

That pretty much sums up my initial reaction...

KJ said...

Hmm... I don't see a lot of the Jam scene connections these guys seem to have. Guess I must need to listen some more. But I agree, they're in my "Indie" section on iTunes, not my "Jam" section. (I hate breaking it down like that but you have to stay sane with this much music somehow, right?). Oh well, I'm gonna give the whole album a listen through now, it's been on my todo list quite awhile.

Also this track at 4:30 or so is screaming Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon to me. I hear the Zep, but man, those little "blooop" sounds in the background, those make it more Floyd for me.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with you more.

Sean Sexton said...

Dondante is such a wonderful and emotionally moving song, and a great ending to a great album. I picked this band up from HD Net, if I recall -- some live concert series. They played "Gideon" and I decided to pick up the CD based on that song alone. I still like "Gideon" (and the last 2:30 of "Off The Record"), but Dondante takes me away every time. I can't wait to hear it live some day...