Evil Urges and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I had the sudden urge in the shower this morning to discuss two intellectual and aesthetic events which have occurred concurrently in my life recently. One is the release of My Morning Jacket’s new album Evil Urges about ten days ago, and the subsequent multiple listenings, and the other is a re-reading of Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. What do these two totally unrelated things have to do with each other? I think I need to start with the book first.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is subtitled “An Inquiry Into Values” and its fundamental concept is the idea of a pre-perceptual ideal of “Quality” which informs the value of things, and also the values of every individual or social set. These two definitions of value are of course different, but I think Pirsig tries to tell the reader that they are in fact both defined by Quality (the repeated capitals are intentional). Quality is the underlying character of a valuable object or experience, but the reaction to quality, either positively or negatively, is what informs the values of a culture or individual. Pirsig splits these value systems up into classical and romantic, subjective and objective, and any other number of dualities but he insists that all of these dualities are in fact a slave to Quality itself. Now, what do these concepts have to do with a rock and roll band from Louisville?

Evil Urges is MMJ’s fifth major studio album. I became familiar with them through their third, 2003’s It Still Moves. For me that album was compelling on first listen as a sort of strange combination of Folk, Stadium Rock and Southern Soul all jumbled up in a reverb tank. And after years of listening it is still rewarding. After delving deeper into their catalog, it is easy to see It Still Moves as a culmination of everything they had tried to do with their first two albums, as well as a significant step forward in terms of quality (lowercase, but perhaps uppercase also) of conception and execution.

It almost goes without saying that after something of a watershed album, there was really no place for the group to continue but to someplace different. This leads us to Z, released in 2005. Like Evil Urges, I bought the album on the day of its release. And my initial response to it was mixed to negative. Some songs maintained the character that I had enjoyed so much on Z. Other songs took on new sonic territory that was immediately amenable to my values. But there were still others that just seemed odd; wailing falsetto vocals, 70s cop show guitar, more stadium rock. I wasn’t sure if I would warm up to the album as a whole the way I had with It Still Moves. But I did.

My reaction to Evil Urges has been similar, though admittedly I was taken less by surprise, given the hype surrounding the albums “new direction” before it was released. Perhaps my expectations were for something different than what I heard, and that has informed my response. I really enjoyed the title track when I first heard it, prior to the album’s release. The song is a considerable departure, even from Z. A new and different falsetto from Jim James and a distinct R&B flavor with some standard stadium rock in the instrumental middle section. I suppose this raised my expectations even higher.

When I was finally able to listen to the whole album there were more songs that I enjoyed. I’m Amazed is classic MMJ. Touch Me I’m Going to Scream pt. 2 is a considerable step forward, much like the title track, and also quite interesting to me. But there were multiple aspects that I found almost appalling, on first listen: Highly Suspicious in its entirety, The Yacht-Rock backing vocals on Sec Walkin, The inane pop-rock of Two Halves. Librarian is chock full of bad lyrics. The Interweb? Periodical? Karen of the Carpenters? Good lord! And let us not forget peanut-butter pudding surprise from Highly Suspicious. How did the band think that these were good ideas? But the more I have listened, the more even these songs have grown on me. It seems conspicuously similar to my slow adoption of Z as my favorite or second favorite MMJ record. But does this mean that Evil Urges will become my favorite or second favorite now? I don’t think so, and at this point I think it is time to bring Mr. Pirsig back into the picture.

Let’s apply the concept of Quality as a pre-perceptual entity to the phenomenon of my slow acceptance of both Z and Evil Urges. Pirsig would seem to argue that the Quality was there regardless of me, and that it wasn’t until I was able to transcend my dualistic understanding of these songs that I could really appreciate their value. In the case of Z, I have had three years to transcend the classical and romantic perceptions of the album and I have accepted the inherent quality of it. One might say I have even melded both perceptions into one holistic understanding, which is the acceptance of the Quality which gives the album value. Therefore I must be early on in this process as it relates to Evil Urges but I’m not sure that my perception of this album will congeal quite as successfully as it did with Z.

In many cases I am sure that I will reach a holistic appreciation of the materials, as I feel is already the case with the title track. I’ve already stated that even the songs which were appalling to me have started to grow on me, at least superficially, even Highly Suspicious. Perhaps that is the pre-perceptual nature of the song’s quality finally becoming apparent to my perception. But I don’t know if I will be able to reconcile my romantic appreciation of the song as a singular entity, and on a sensory level (it sounds really good, its catchy) with my classical disdain for the elements within (that monster voice is stupid, these lyrics are ridiculous, Jim’s falsetto is silly). This may be the case for other songs as well; it’s probably too early to tell. Maybe the lack of reverb on Evil Urges is bringing to the surface lyrical and conceptual deficiencies that exist on the previous albums but were not made apparent to me during my acceptance of them. And if that is the case, does that diminish their value or just change the character of their value? Perhaps the new sonic character is still too fresh and will wind up being classically, as well as romantically acceptable to me in the future. It all remains to be seen, or heard. By the nature of their creation these songs possess Quality. But will I ever be able to respond to its pre-perceptual nature and reconcile the duality of my appreciation for this album, or lack thereof, enough to raise its value to the level of its predecessors. Only time will tell.