Album review: Jim James, Regions of Light and Sound of God (V2)

Just as My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James was thinking about a solo album, someone gave him a copy of Lynd Ward's 1929 woodblock-print graphic novel God's Man, whose depictions of temptation, corruption and redemption triggered a concept-album in grand Sufjan Stevens style.

The album features slow-burning grooves that build steadily from modestly minimal to euphorically exultant, over which James's piercing, piping vocals essay cryptic ruminations on morality, change, fidelity and forgiveness, culminating in “God's Love to Deliver”, a reflection upon Martin Luther King's celebrated dream. Played almost entirely solo by James, it's a quirky curio that seeks its own peculiar niche in the pop firmament.

Download: State of the Art; Of the Mother Again; God's Love to Deliver