My Morning Jacket to release first album in five years with The Waterfall II

Kentucky-bred rock quintuplet My Morning Jacket is set to release their first album in five years, The Waterfall II, on Friday via ATO Records.

According to a press release, the new album was “massively inspired by the band’s idyllic surroundings in Stinson Beach, CA — and a sense of charmed isolation that frontman Jim James likened to ‘living on our own little moon.’” The band ended up producing over two dozen songs in the mountaintop studio, Panoramic House. 

The group decided to release the first half of the project, The Waterfall, as a full-length album in 2015. The record would go on to later earn a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. 

Five years later, the time has come for the band to release the project’s second half as The Waterfall II. Band member Jim James revealed that the decision to drop the album was “sparked from a bit of serendipity in the early days of self-quarantine.” While out on a walk, he shuffled his music library and stumbled upon “Spinning My Wheels,” a new track from the forthcoming record. 

James noted the song’s relevance revisited the other tracks reserved from the Panoramic House sessions. He found that “they invited a welcome moment of self-reflection—an outcome perhaps even more perfectly suited to the chaos of the current day than the circumstances of their recording.”

The band shared on their Instagram page that there will be an album listening party via Facebook and YouTube on tonight at 9; watch below, and check out the album track list. MMJ will also perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on July 15.

The Waterfall II Track List:
Spinning My Wheels
Still Thinkin
Climbing The Ladder
Feel You
Beautiful Love (Wasn’t Enough)
Magic Bullet
Run It
Wasted
Welcome Home
The First Time