Customer Reviews

The Tennessee Fire [Vinyl]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many reviews of this album rightfully confirm the unmistakable beauty of the songs themselves but come down pretty hard on the production value. I can understand the need to make such impossibly heartbreaking, devastating music more palatable and polished (and thus easier to appreciate), but I sensed that a few of these were coming at the album with a spreading, contagious contempt for what has become passé low-fi indie sound, which first of all does a great disservice to the legend behind "The Tennessee Fire"--namely, that Jim James and his crew recorded this entirely inside a grain silo. Secondly, bashing the production value seems to deny the art its medium, like looking at an ice sculpture and saying, "Well, what a stupid thing to make a sculpture out of." Lastly, what makes this "The Tennessee Fire" is the Kentucky grain silo sound studio, the garage band reverb, wailing, whiskey-soaked vocals, and all the echoes and scuffles and distracting dropped instruments that are all but an orchestra of lonely, desperate high school nights spent out in the middle of nowhere, playing cranked-up instruments on bad sound equipment. If you're going to take this into some lavish sound studio and erase what essentially makes this album so intimate, you might as well keep clicking until you reach the Billboard Top 20. You might just find that sterilized, studio uniformity you've been looking for. But if you want 15 incredible songs that all sound like perfect first takes with the ghosts of the four-track gods lurking in the cassette hiss, then you might want to think about lowering your quality standards a little bit, because this is a bad production at it's very best.

I bought It Still Moves and after half a dozen listens was still unsure how I felt about it. Many times you pick up an album and after a few listens you get it. The album becomes familiar. Not so with my morning jacket, their songs are very difficult to classify or break down. At first listen The Tennessee Fire seems roughly recorded, as if recorded live, but on closer inspection you'll notice that one song may be recoded as if you're listening across a room and the next as if you're at the front of a stage. This is not an amateur recording, but rather a very deliberate use of sound to create a song's atmosphere. Although I found the effect unnerving on It Still Moves my first listening, My Morning Jacket use their recording studio's natural acoustics as part of their sound on all their albums. This is a very rough album with some very polished corners... but the loose ends are exquisite.

AT DAWN is their masterpiece. TENNESSEE FIRE is where you go for more. Recorded under questionable conditions, this is their big hello to the world. It was recorded in a barn at their own expense & it sounds like it. My first introduction to the band was through The Oxford American Annual Music Issue Sampler. The song featured, was "Evelyn Is Not Real". I kept playing it over & over till I could get my hands on a proper album. What I heard was infectious & mysterious. Kind of a cross between very early REM & Neil Young. Twangy enough to merit comparisons to Uncle Tupelo & Wilco, but far less premeditated. Needless to say, the hookey opener, "Heartbreakin' Man" did not disappoint my high expectations. Let lines like, "20x's I wish you'd understand that you're breaking the hearts of great men" serve as cause for further investigation. "They Ran", "The Bear" bring to mind the more sombre moments of the now legendary Big Star. If you marveled at "Daisy Glaze" off of RADIO CITY or "Big Black Car" from 3rd/SISTER LOVERS, then this band is for you. Frontman, Jim James likes his reverb. Infact, he cranks it to 11. So everything sounds echoey & slightly underwater. But passionate offerings like, "Nashville To Kentucky" prove they can wade in without drowning. "All Else Fails" brings the Indy quirkiness of Will Oldham to mind. I love the bit of banjo they put into it. "It's About Twilight Now" prove these guys can rock & "I Will Be There When You Die" is heartwarming. Though a few of these 15 tracks may not grab you at first, there's plenty of bait on here to reel you in.

If VU was the best underground band of the 60's. Big Star, the 70's. Early REM, the 80's & Uncle Tupelo in the 90's. Well, My Morning Jacket is out there for you here & now.

I was somewhat late into the world of My Morning Jacket unfortunately, and Tennessee Fire was the last album that I listened to from them. I started to fall in love with their other albums first and thought of Tennessee Fire as a decent first album, or a "good start," and when "Z" came out I loved that album as well. I finally started listening to Tennessee Fire a bit more while the other albums were gaining even more of my affection. It kept building, and building, and building, eventually "At Dawn" became the greatest thing I had ever heard, and "It Still Moves" and "Z" started to reveal their layers to me as well, and all this time, poor little "Tennessee Fire" sat there, lonely and cold, waiting for me to sit down with it and get to know it as deeply as their other albums, begging to me to give it the same shake I had given all of their other albums, trying to convince me it was more than just an okay first effort, but instead a beginning to the chain of the greatest and most soulfull music ever to be laid upon the once def ears of this world.

Finally, I felt sympathy, and after brief listens here and there, withouth my full attention, I lay there on my couch, with nothing but silence, and put on this album, with no distractions. Wait, wait, it's clicking, yes, yes, third track in and I'm starting to realize the power of "They Ran" finally, and "The Bear" strikes me even more than before. Every song now, clicking, sinking in; I'm getting it, "Nashville to Kentucky" means more to me now, I can feel the meaning, yes, "Evelyn Is Not Real" is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard, on and on, I start to understand that the production ISN'T WEAK, it's calculated and intense and relevant to the style Jim James had invisioned for this haunting album. HIS VOCALS ARE EVERYWHERE, I'm not even high or tripping, and I feel like I'm freaking out by the intensity of the album; this album is arguably as powerful as anything they have done. By the latter parts of the album, there is no let-down at all. Possibly, the two or three most affecting songs are at the end; "By My Car, "Butch Cassidy," and "I Think I'm Going to Hell," and also the end track, which is instrumental, all are part of a cumulation that leaves you feeling emotional in so many levels, asking yourself how that was possible to capture on any type of recording device.

I listen to this album, among others from MMJ, and wonder to myself at times if it's even real; is anyone else hearing what I'm hearing? I want to SCREAM ALOUD to people, repeatedly, "CAN YOU HEAR THE SOUL THAT I HEAR?" If so, we should all be out on the streets screaming, howling, crying, hugging each other, revealing our newly found souls to the world, freeing our souls from the cage they have dwelled in, rejoicing in a celebratory victory dance while their music plays from the skies from a sound system echoing and drifting from galaxies far, far away.

This album ranges from country, to 50's crooning, to rock and back to country. The one thing that is horrible is the recording quality...Deliberate or not it does detract from the listening experience...Apart from that, there is not one weak song on this album which is one of the most divers albums I have ever heard.
The songs are often the voice isolated against a minimalized musical background which makes the album quite catchy. The raw vocals, coupled with the intense passion at times will give the goosebumps. I WIll Be There When You Die will stick out the most after a first listen, but that will be the song you tire of first. This album is amazingly adaptive and when one part becomes commonplace another sucks you in. The haunting track By My Car is quite simple, but the mysterious lyrics are inquisitively magnetic. I cannot say enough about this album. Unfortunately At Dawn was too much of a a departure. This album is a must have for anyone who likes brilliant music...

My morning jacket's first album's best quality are the songs. The recording is strange. Why strange? I can't figure out why this band would appear so lazy in the production of this brilliant work. Is there some kind of artistic quality of a subdued voice on one track and a loud and crystal one on another? No, it couldn't have been intentional. But still, the lack of production doesn't take much away from the songs. It could have been the album of the year if the production was better. The first three songs flow together as if it were produced by Steve Lilywhite. 'Heartbreakin Man' combines a killer surf guitar riff with a country verse - an odd combo but they pull it off seamlessly. 'They ran' is a lonely drunken daze - but its slow cadence and minimal instrumentation allows James talents as a singer to radiate. 'The bear' must have been recorded with the studio in one room and james singing in the hallway. This still doesn't take away from your enjoyment of the song. Nashville to Kentucky is another slow bluesy song. It takes patience to appreciate it but it has numerous qualities. 'Old September Blues' is one of the shining moments on this standout album. It's another kind of whiney song that reminds me of Thom Yorke of Radiohead for some reason. 'If all else fails' is probably my favorite on this album. It's an acoustic waltz with a banjo thrown in. The production on this one is quite good. They use nice reverb on harmonizing vocals at the chorus that adds to the aesthetic. 'Its about twilight' is a harder rocking electric acoustic combo that shows the immaturity of the band at the time. 'Evelyn is not real' is more on par with the rest. It's a solid country-pop song. 'War begun' is another nice slower acoustic song that could have been alot better if well you know...The rest of the album kind of drags along with highlights here and there. It could have definitely been shorter (over 70 minutes). Overall, this album's qualities clearly outweigh the production problems. And, in some cases, the band made great choices with the production and the results are very satisfying. I would recommend 'the tennesse fire' to almost anyone. However, those who bought 'it still moves' first should expect a much slower album. But, the great thing about this album is the songs - most, not all, are just as good as those found on 'it still moves.' Haven't heard of 'it still moves'? Buy it and feel pure pleasure reverberate through you.

The Best Record of 1999. Will Oldham (Palace) fans will find it particularly appealing. You'll have your heart broken while being mezmorized by the blend of Phil Spector sound and Neil Young harmonies. They don't get much better than this.

This is the best album to come out of Louisville, I do believe. For all the indie-rock posers who refuse to let go of their Slint, Babylon Dance Band and ever-precious Rodan, this is a REAL RECORD! Jim has a SWEET voice which carries throught the low-fi production. Great harmonies. A really good blend of Brian Wilson and Graham Parker, Flying Burrito Bros and the Byrds etc. Would be FIVE STARS if not for the production, which is a little murky for my taste, but fans of low-fi alt-country should dig it regardless.

It took me awhile to get into this album. I'm not sure just how many times I listened to it before its brilliance fully emerged, but I do know that these songs feel like a part of myself that someone else is singing. Whether or not the average listener experiences a similar resonance, the authenticity of these humbly beautiful songs is bound to strike a cord. Hands down- My Morning Jacket's best album!

this album is amazing--a perfect concoction of beautifully diverse influences--smooth 1960's soul balladry, grizzled acoustic country and velvet underground drone rock stylings always looming under the hazy surface of the simple songs