CHOCOLATE & ICE

My Morning Jacket includes: Jim James (vocals, guitar). The proliferation of My Morning Jacket releases continues unabated with Chocolate and Ice, a 40-minute EP that further refines and expands the scope of Jimi James' increasingly singular musical identity. Although Such Protection From My Bed and Sooner are vintage MMJ (i.e., ghostlike rural psychedelia), Cobra is a 24-minute exploration as serpentine as its title, beginning with an oddly funky drum-machine rhythm before mutating into a lumbering, bluesy jam that itself transforms to become an epic drone soundscape. It's Been a Great 3 or 4 Years is no less jarring, a seemingly interminable answering machine message purportedly left by James' cousin -- pure filler. But Holy and Sweetheart more than make up for it, in particular the string-sweetened former; say what you like about James, but he's never predictable. ~ Jason Ankeny

TRACKS:
1.Can You See the Hard Helmet on My Head'
2.Sooner
3.Cobra
4.It's Been a Great 3 or 4 Years
5.Holy
6.Sweetheart