Evil Urges Review

Well Evil Urges is kind of an album to grow on you. I read stuff from Jim James (lead singer) who said the first three songs would shock MMJ fans. I wasn't shocked. At first I wasn't keen on it, but I really dig it now. The first second and 4th songs are really good. The 3rd track, "Highly Suspicious" is still trying to grow on me. The first song "Evil Urges" starts out with a solid beat on drums and slowly all the other instruments come in until a break and then the song takes off. One thing to note is how much more Jim James sings in a falsetto on this album, compared to It Still Moves and Z. I was distraught at first, but I like it now. He does this in "Evil Urges," which I'm sure will be a single. In it, James uses less reverb on his voice as he sings, showing off his vocal range, similar to the way he did in the opening of Z in "Wordless Chorus." "Evil Urges" of course goes into a classic jam towards the end, which I'm sure will just underline their unbeatable live prowess. The whole album bounces around between a couple different sounds. The Neil Young sounds of It Still Moves, to the stoner lullabies in Z, to a new sound presented in the opening song. The second song, "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream" returns to the stonerish sound of Z, but is very welcomed. The song has James almost in a whisper as he begs, "Touch me, I'm going to scream if you don't." Keyboardist Bo Koster really adds another layer to this song with the sounds that he adds to it. "Highly Suspicious" reminds me Prince with the way James sings and how the song jives. The first time I heard the chorus to this song I was really confused haha. It's really different. The song is fun and catchy though, it starts to take off at about the 1:30 mark when the first solo comes in. The song returns to the chorus then takes off into the ending, which really shows off Carl Broemel's abilities to produce catchy riffs. The next song, "I'm Amazed" continues the strong opening into the album, with this Tom Petty-esque tune. "Thank You Too" follows "I'm Amazed" and the song is really carried by the way Jim James can so simply captivate the listener. The song just has so much sincerity behind, that is easy to hear as you listen. "Sec Walkin" sounds like it was just pulled right off of "It Still Moves" with the way it carries on. It is a solid track though. "Two Halves" reminds me so much of another MMJ track, with the guitar riff, but I suppose that is just their sound. The backing vocals remind me of The Beach Boys in the way that it sounds. The next song is not a song I am fond of. "Librarian" has a good acoustic melody, but I felt like it never picked up. "Look At You" is another song I felt kind of dragged as well and there isn't much to say about it. "Aluminum Park" is a pretty decent track, I like the melody, but the opening is a rip off of....themselves. "Lay Low" off of Z has almost the exact same riff as the opening to this song. Aside from that it's good. "Remnants" has such an awesome opening riff, especially when both guitars come in. The entire album as a whole is a lot more rock compared to any other albums, but a plus to this is that their live arsenal will be so full of show stoppers, it will be hard to pinpoint exactly when the show has reached it's climax. I love the last two songs on the album. "Smokin' From Shootin'" starts of slow and quiet and gradually builds into a really catchy song that fades off and into "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream pt. 2" which closes the album in the perfect way. At first listen, I was really sad, but I enjoy the album a lot. Of course I have songs that I prefer over others, but the album is solid overall. Clever lyrics, more catchy riffs and a really enjoyable layered sound.

8/10