My Morning Jacket - 'Okonokos' (SonyBMG) Released 02/10/06

Some bands may by now view gigging as an unfortunately toil-intensive part of the promotional cycle. Not My Morning Jacket, though. Every moment of 'Okonokos', the exquisitely hirsute Louisville, Kentucky quintet's two hours plus take on the old school double-live album, crackles with a sizzling celebration of the stage and its transcendental possibilities, and it doesn't take them long to start wiping the floor with any preconceptions you might have about the band.   Far from a bunch of backwards-gazing Southern-fried boogie peddlers, Neil Young-aping alt. country.phpirants or aimlessly noodling jam band aficionados, these 21 career-spanning tracks capture the five-piece mixing these ingredients and much, much more - country-folk roots, swooning soul, road-ragged rock 'n' roll, sparkling pop, even dancefloor-geared spaceage-funk and reggae, all of it catapulted to glorious heights by the heavenly croon of Jim James and Crazy Horsian reserves of cranked-up guitar crunch - to nail the genre-busting sound unveiled on last year's 'Z' with awe-inspiring aplomb.   Whether rescuing rarities from obscurity, switching early lo-fi gems to blazing multicolour without losing an iota of their hazy melancholy charm, dumbing down to greasy riff action, setting sail to stargazing cosmic soulfulness or providing convincing arguments in favour of marathon-length workouts, 'Okonokos' is filled with immense, uncategorisable music that makes much of the competition seem stiff in their movements, not to mention severely short on skills and soul alike. Simultaneously stadium-huggingly huge and soothingly intimate, equally fit for the grandest enormodome and the tiniest of clubs, gazing at the future whilst remaining rooted in trusted traditions, the band is on jaw-dropping form here, switching from muscle-flexing raw power to aching vulnerability with breathtaking ease, equally at home with giddy joy and teary-eyed desolation.