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See Jim James Woo a Buffalo in a Dress in ‘A New Life’ Video

Jim James 'A New Life' Video

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James is on a spiritual trip and it’s paying off in spades. His new solo album Regions of Light and Sound of God is a beautiful feat of psychedelia that’s easy on the ears and higher searching that never comes across as preachy, and the “sublime, doo-wop-tinged” standout “A New Life” is one of its more gorgeous standouts. That soulful jangler now has a fun and mysterious video to match its beguiling vibes, via Pitchfork TV.

It begins simply enough: our hirsute hero strumming lightly on an acoustic guitar in a dusty roundish barn — could this be the famed silo of his MMJ salad days? — but as he sings, “Hey, open the door / I need a new life,” he exits the structure and is transported to a rural scene. There, a woman in a pink dress wearing a buffalo head dances in the distance as he steps out of a series of freestanding doors with an ever-increasing number of boy-suited girl dancers behind him. 

In our recent interview with James, he spoke about imaginative zones much like these: “I like to think about the zone. I like to think God is that point where you are gone, like when you’re making love or listening to a great record or reading a great book. These things suck us into this space where you’re not thinking about your taxes or your job or all this chatter that goes on in your mind. When you escape, that’s what I think makes us connected to God.”

Whatever he, you, or the buffalo girl are connected to, it’s a lovely little land of playful intrigue. Enjoy.