My Morning Jacket’s Jim James is back with his first new solo song in eight years, “Come Again,” which will appear on his new album, Wowed Out, out Aug. 28 via ATO Records.
James built the new album around music he originally composed for two film projects in the early 2010s. “Come Again,” for instance, began with a cue James cooked up for a scene set in a teddy bear factory, which has now been transformed into a marching, characteristically psychedelic meditation on finding beauty in a chaotic world.
In a statement, James said the song “came from feeling discouraged by how much things are changing in directions I don’t agree with, but trying to remember that there’s still so much beauty to be experienced. You’ve got to just keep going and keep trying again and again and again to find joy.”
Similarly, the album’s title, Wowed Out, is a term James uses to describe feeling overwhelmed in an era of constant external stimulation. To cut through all that noise, James found refuge, and a creative spark, in a trove of old music he’d created with composer Brian Reitzell, best known for his work with filmmaker Sofia Coppola.
James said he’d been returning to this music for years, but “couldn’t figure out what to do with it.” It finally clicked last year and “everything started flowing in a really beautiful way.”
Of the album, James added, “There’ve been times in my life where I’ve felt lost or depressed, but music has always been the thing that pulls me back. When I think about making this album, it almost feels like I was in some kind of dream and now I’m trying to remember what the dream was about. The whole thing brought me a lot of joy and comfort while I was making it, and I hope it brings everyone else a little joy and comfort too.”
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Wowed Out marks James’ first solo album since his pair of 2018 releases, Uniform Distortion and Uniform Clarity. Since then, My Morning Jacket has released several records, including last year’s Is. They’ve also got a new collection out this year called Peacelands, which contains a mix of acoustic covers and original protest songs (with all proceeds going to charity).
Ahead of releasing Wowed Out, James will partake in a special string of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles celebrating music from the films of Wes Anderson. The shows are set for July 10, 11, and 12, and will also feature Beck, Jackson Browne, Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Bill Murray, and more. He’s also set deliver a solo acoustic performance the day Wowed Out is released, Aug. 28, at the annual Song Summit in Park City, Utah.
