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EXCLUSIVE: My Morning Jacket Cover the Muppets

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For the next Muppets movie, Disney has cooked up an ace tribute set titled Muppets: The Green Album, which features top artists like Weezer, Paramore, Andrew Bird, Sondre Lerche, Evanescence’s Amy Lee, and others covering classic songs from the Jim Henson songbook (out August 23). One of those highlights is My Morning Jacket’s rendition of “Our World,” which SPIN is premiering exclusively.

Listen: My Morning Jacket, “Our World”

“Our World” was originally featured on the 1977 Muppets Christmas special Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, and My Morning Jacket have fond memories of watching that special while growing up.

“Every December, my friend Cara and I would camp in her basement, furiously running through channels on the old slider cable box, passing time until the next showing of Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas,” bassist Tom Blankenship tells SPIN. “It deserves to share legendary status with Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown [holiday specials].”

Blankenship says the musical highlight from that special is “Our World,” which My Morning Jacket turn into a banjo-flecked, spiritually uplifting number. “It’s our yearly reminder that the world outside the perpetual TV glow of that wood-paneled basement was a lot more welcoming, that strangers were a dying breed, that adventure was ripe for the taking if you left your heart open and let folks in.”

To pre-order a copy of Muppets: The Green Album, head Muppets Music. A deluxe edition bundled with a limited-edition poster and t-shirt is also available.