My Morning Jacket Announce First New Album in Six Years & Fall 2021 Tour Dates

24.08.2021

My Morning Jacket announced their first new album in more than six years on Tuesday (Aug. 24), a self-titled effort that is slated to drop on ATO Records on Oct. 22. In addition to the newly released single, “Regularly Scheduled Programming,” the band revealed the tour dates for their first U.S. headlining run in as many years, slated to kick off on Friday (Aug. 27) with a gig at the Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre in Charlotte, N.C.

The band’s ninth studio album is their first since 2015’s Grammy-nominated The Waterfall, and according to a release, it was recorded over two multi-week sessions in Los Angeles after what was starting to look like a permanent hiatus. A second outtakes album, The Waterfall II, came out in 2020.

“I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we’ve all been cooped up for so long,” lead singer Jim James — who also produced and engineered the 11-track album — said in a statement. “I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we’re able to be a part of people’s lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we’re still around to keep doing that.”

The road-trippin’ visual for “Regularly Scheduled,” co-directed by James and George Mays, finds the band falling into a screen time black hole as they tool down the desert highway in search of nirvana while the song’s chugging rhythm skulks along underneath. “Dishes are piling up in the sink/ Blood veins a bit too thick to think/ With these prescription and over-the-counter drugs/ Hugs and kisses, you know where I’m coming from,” James sings in a deadpan on the track that builds to a noisy, chaotic peak.

“This song really hits home for me after what we’ve gone through with the pandemic,” James said about the clip. “But even before then, it felt like so many of us were trading real life for social media, trading our own stories for the storylines on TV, trading our consciousness for drugs. We need to help each other wake up to real love before it’s too late.”

The release noted that after the long break, the band was inspired to get back together after a pair of “mind-blowing” nights at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the summer of 2019 that made them want to get in a room again. MMJ also described the single “Programming” and the album’s “otherworldly” album closer, “I Never Could Get Enough,” as a peek at their penchant for “exploring the most nuanced and layered existential questions in song form while simultaneously harnessing the hypnotic intensity of their legendary live show more fully than ever before.”

Watch the “Regularly Scheduled” video and check out the album track list and tour dates below.

My Morning Jacket track list: