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May 31, 2018 My Morning Jacket By Christopher Roberts Photography by Danny Clinch

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James is releasing a new solo album, Uniform Distortion, on June 29 via ATO. Previously he shared the album’s first single, “Just a Fool” (which was one of our Songs of the Week and which he performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). Now he has shared another song from the album, “Throwback,” which was inspired by his experiences with social media. Check it out below.

James had this to say about the song in a press release: “I wrote this song doing pretty much what you are probably doing right at this very second: scrolling thru social media. It struck me as SO wild - how, as you scroll back in time through someone’s account, you watch their face grow younger…but as you do this, REAL TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!! The clock is ticking…instead of doing good work or creating love or taking a walk in nature, I am here STARING AT MY FUCKING PHONE!!!! ha ha ha. Don’t get me wrong - social media is an amazing tool…but I think we should look at it more like a tool, like a hammer you pick up for a little while to do a job, and then you PUT IT DOWN. You don’t sit there and keep hammering away or else pretty soon your entire world would be destroyed and fall apart! And I feel like that is exactly what is happening right before our very eyes to this precious real beautiful human-filled earth. So lets WAKE EACH OTHER UP PEOPLE! Lets stand up against injustice and use this tool of social media to fight for peace and love and equality! Let’s throwback for a minute, but try and live in the NOW for a better future. Thanks for listening.”

James also previously issued a lengthy statement about the album and its cover art, which you can read here.

James released an excellent solo album, the politically-charged Eternally Even, in the fall of 2016 via ATO (it was one of Under the Radar‘s Top 100 Albums of 2016). Last December James released Tribute To 2, an album of covers that was the sequel to his 2009 George Harrison covers EP Tribute To (which was also reissued last year).

My Morning Jacket released their last album, The Waterfall, in 2015. Read our 2015 interview with Jim James about the album.

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