My Morning Jacket - Z

This album's excellent, and I suspect that it'll only get better as summer draws nearer. "Off The Record" is the first song from it that I heard, and it's the high point, guitars squawking and chirruping as frontman Jim James hollers charismatically along in a heck of an anthem, but there's plenty to like elsewhere; almost as good is raveup "Anytime", and likewise "What A Wonderful Man" (another song for which the concept of 'raveup' could practically have been invented) and "It Beats 4 U". It's a spacey southern rawk kinda thing that MMJ have got going on, and it's sustained and really good - benefits from being more concise than It Still Moves (which is totally fab for its first four songs or so, after which it always just sort of wears off), and as such doesn't let up at any point in its running time. Probably the best new rock album I've heard since Funeral last year.