Approximately forty-seven minutes isn't nearly enough to fully capture the sensation of the My Morning Jacket concert experience‚ but the seven tracks that comprise Celebración De La Ciudad Natal should be enough to placate the rabid Jacketheads as well as newer fans of the Kentucky firebrands.
The title track of last year's studio work‚ Evil Urges‚ sounds forced until the band kicks into a high-speed reel at the end. "Highly Suspicious" would work well as a segue to a superior tune‚ but it is another chance to hear Carl Broemel shredding (or is it Jim James himself wielding the Gibson Flying V?). Celebracion mixes 'new' and 'old' material, and the listening experience takes off with "Gideon" where the MMJ leader wails his heart out.
The melancholy sentiment of "Where to Begin" finds an echo in the forlorn pedal steel that adorns the acoustic arrangement while "Librarian" is extremely effectively sequenced here: its understatement is the calm before the storm of genuine majesty My Morning Jacket attain via "Phone Went West" and the similarly rarified air on "Dondante."
Its availability limited to indie record stores‚ this collection of performances impeccably recorded in MMJ's Louisville home town in 2008 -- at an outdoor venue and local record store‚ hence‚ the dual reference in the meaning of the title -- presents an effective outline of their shows‚ at least until the successor to Okonokos appears.
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