The first thing that came to mind after hearing Jim James’ debut solo album Regions of Light and Sound of God for the first timewas a song lyric that came out when James only fifteen, “I changed by not changing at all.” What may sometimes be a damning comment for some musicians is here a term of endearment and in this case almost a sigh of relief of sorts.
The reason for this really lies in the fact that since the debut of My Morning Jacket’s first album The Tennessee Fire fourteen years ago, James has come to craft a sound and style that is very much his own. And it’s a very distinguishable sound at that, and being master and commander of My Morning Jacket the band’s ever growing yet recognizable sound is the product of his hand. Listen to James’ other projects, super group Monsters of Folk or the 2012 Woody Guthrie tribute New Multitudes,and it is easy to pick out his elements. Regions acts in the same way with James acting on familiarity while at the same time creating a piece that stands alone in his realm of work.
In its 38:24 run time, Regions sees James creating a spacey and star-crossed atmosphere, a theme that is well represented on the artwork which depicts a silhouette of James looking outward into a scene of refracted light bursts. The sound of the album is a combination of jazz/funk/acoustic. There is little to none of the arena rock sound that he is commonly known for, with saxophones and strings popping up more often throughout the album than electric guitars do. It sounds more like an album that may appeal more to the Dharma-enthusiast side of your personality rather than the low grade acid-jilted one who watched him while being sandwiched in with a massive crowd at Bonnaroo sometime in the past few years. It’s a purposefully chill venture that sees its creator doing his best to have it reflect his personality. And that is something it succeeds well in.
The album often occupies a realm between earnest and quirky. Sometimes James crafts endearing lyrics like, “It won’t come easy/ And what’s more/ It’s worth working for” and other times he toys with intriguingly humorous lines that have come to be something of a trademark in his output, “I have a dream, oh Dr. King will I know what you mean/ We were all equal in your eyes and ears.” It’s a style of lyricism that is evenly balanced throughout the album and helps to establish James’ persona as a solo artist.
With the clash of its departures and familiarities to existing work, Regions follows James into an exercise of self-reflection, something that is a major reason as to why solo albums are done in the first place. The main success in Regions is the way in which it sees him working off his established reputation. This theme is literally represented in the album right down to its title which references Lynd Ward’s 1929 graphic-novel God’s Man, a story that deals with an individual’s struggle with personal life and the craft he is trying to represent himself through. In the end, this heavy topic is appropriate to this album in how it sees its creator reflecting on his past repertoire while simultaneously using it build and grow. It is just as much an exploration as a reflection.