This is a fascinating and most satisfying little EP release from Jim James (Yim Yames) the main man in My Morning Jacket and currently working with Conor Oberst and M. Ward in the super-group Monsters Of Folk (album out September). In that busy schedule he has found time to record six songs from George Harrison most prolific period – 1966-1970 – all stripped of their Beatle-esque and Phil Spector arrangements and slowed down to a snail’s pace; what a lovely sounding snail though! I have said many times on this blog and in my book The Rock Cries Out that Harrison didn’t find his spiritual answers in the same way that I did but The Protestant Reformers, in whom my inheritance lies, always encouraged light from all quarters and something in these songs particularly My Sweet Lord (I’d love a Christian version that uses Biblical names for God in place of Harrison’s eastern deities – come on Sufjan, I dare you!), All Things Must Pass and Beware of Darkness whispers something positive to my soul. His versions of Long, Long, Long and Love You To lift them out of the Lennon-McCartney dense White Album and Revolver respectively to show the quiet Beatle’s quiet gems. In this new invention, that could have been recorded deep in the woods in Bon Ivor’s cabin, these songs ooze the mystical sense of Harrison’s intent; searching, prayerful, spiritually careful.
Lazily soulful.
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