My Morning Jacket ‘is’ Releasing New Album Featuring Lead Single ‘Time Waited’

My Morning Jacket will release their 10th studio album, is, on March 21 through ATO Records. The band shared the lead single, “Time Waited,” off the Brendan O’Brien-produced album.

My Morning Jacket – frontman Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan and keyboardist Bo Koster – recorded is in Los Angeles at Henson Recording Studios. The sessions were held after the band held two productive writing sessions, amassing over 100 demos, from which the 10 tracks making up the album were born.

“One of the cool things about being around this long is that we’re not afraid to scrap something if we don’t absolutely love it,” James stated.

James – who produced or co-produced all of the MMJ’s studio albums beginning with their 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire – discussed the band’s decision to work with the multi-Grammy winner O’Brien.

“Up until now I’ve never been able to let go and allow someone else to steer the ship,” James revealed. “It almost felt like an out-of-body experience to step back and give control over to someone who’s far more accomplished and made so many more records than us, but in the end I was able to enjoy the process maybe more than I ever have before.”

James further detailed the album, commenting on the meaning behind its title and more:

“I like how the word ‘is’ indicates a sense of presence in the now – there’s no logic or rationale behind this record; it just is. All these songs came into existence out of an attempt to connect with something beyond the human experiment, which for me is one of the most beautiful things about music – that connection with something larger than us, yet something we are all equally a part of.

“It feels really great to have a collection of songs we all love this much, and to know that we worked as hard as we possibly could on them. Hopefully those songs will be helpful to people and give them some kind of peace as they try to deal with the insanity of the world – because that’s what music does for me, and doing the same for others is always my greatest dream come true.”

The album’s announcement arrived with the lead single, “Time Waited.” James built the song out of a sample of a piano part from pedal-steel guitar master Buddy Emmons’ album, Emmons Guitar Inc.

“I made a loop of that piano intro and listened as I went for a walk, and all these melodies started coming to me,” James explained. “For a long time, I didn’t have lyrics, but then I had a dream where I was in a café and a song was playing, and the lyrics to that song became the lyrics to ‘Time Waited’ – the melodies just fit perfectly. And the lyrics are about how flexible time is, how we can bend and warp time, especially if we are following our hearts, the universe and time itself can flow to work with us.”

Noted photographer/director/musician Danny Clinch directed the video for the is lead single, “Time Waited.” Watch here:

is Tracklist

1. Out In The Open
2. Half A Lifetime
3. Everyday Magic
4. I Can Hear Your Love
5. Time Waited
6. Beginning From The Ending
7. Lemme Know
8. Squid Ink
9. Die For It
10. River Road