Two Halves

Album: Evil Urges (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is appropriately titled as it's the dividing line between what is in essence two completely different albums. The first half is more experimental, while the second is more traditional MMJ. Frontman Jim James discussed the album's sequencing with Jambands.com: "We kind of had fun with the sequencing. When you get the vinyl, you can kind of see it. It is going to be a double-disc vinyl with four sides. I think the record kind of flows more in four quadrants than two-halves, though there is a song on it called 'Two Halves' halfway through. Not a mistake. We started out with more songs than we knew we'd end up with, so we kind of whittled the songs away. In that way, the album kind of makes itself work out, because sometimes you might want a song to work and it just won't. So we recorded 15 we decided that these were the ones that kind of worked together and then we labored over the sequence and tried to make it a journey."
  • In a 2008 interview with Dallas News, Jim James said this song is about his tendency to "get caught up in the past or the future. It's tough sometimes to be grateful for what you have right now."
  • The indie-rock band try out several different genres on Evil Urges, with this tune taking its cue from '60s rock 'n roll in the style of "(Oh) Pretty Woman" singer Roy Orbison. James also paid tribute to Orbison and his other favorite singers on the At Dawn track "The Way That He Sings."

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