Solo albums by famous front men can either be a blessing or a curse, more so than the average risk that a musician takes. You’re saddled by the expectations of writing songs in the similar vein of your original outfit and if you don’t, then fans will criticize you for being weird and not sounding, well, like yourself. That’s the climate that My Morning Jacket singer Jim James faces as earlier this week, he released his first solo effort, Regions of Light and Sound of God.

James has worked outside of the My Morning Jacket sphere, most notably with Monsters of Folk and a solo EP of George Harrison covers, but this is the first collection of songs that he truly call his own. That being said, if you’re a My Morning Jacket fan, you could be a bit disappointed since the anthemic rock tunes aren’t on here. However, if you go in with an open mind, you’ll soon realize how terrific this album is. The only that you can say that’s similar to MMJ is that the singer’s vocals are wistful as the melodies are exactly what you’d expect from James: haunting yet beautiful. Add to that James plays every instrument and it’s self-produced, then you got a work that is more complicated than the cut-and-dry solo debut.

The singer is a self-acknowledged fan of Lynd Ward’s Gods’ Man, the 1929 story that is widely credited as the first graphic novel. That book tells of a young artist who learns the hard way that money and fame aren’t what they’re cracked up to be and by the time he figures out what’s really important, death has found him. How does this relate to this album? It provides the foundation and gives insight to where James was influenced to write songs that tackle the themes of fear and spiritual concerns. He’s quoted as saying that he wants the album to sound like it came from a different place and compared to anything he’s done before, James has accomplished exactly that.

Mesmerizing album opener “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U)” lyrically questions the benefits of technology and the two-chord piano-riff and funky drums are than anything MMJ has ever done. It’s clever, especially as he sings, “I think the power is going out,” as his voice becomes unclear and the song ends. James uses technology (and possibly a fear of it) as an overarching theme, which seems to the one common thread between the nine distinctly different songs.

“Know Til Know” is a song that best exemplifies the state of the album. Soulful at points, haunting and delicate at others, the first three-quarters of the song is lyrically driven (though hiding behind moments of ‘70s R&B) before yielding to a slow piano fade out with cackling and a lo-fi wind instrument (yes there are some) leaving you alone with your thoughts. While the aforementioned song may represent the album’s pulse, “Exploding,” represents the album’s soul. On first listen, it sounds like the simple plucking of an acoustic guitar, but it slowly build, adding layers and complexity, and becomes the type of song that you’d hear while camping and looking at the stars.

As a whole, the album feels strangely familiar to a MMJ, yet it doesn’t feel like James is trying to intentionally duplicate the largeness of his band. Though it’s not stripped down per se, the album takes risks that James wouldn’t have been able to take had he tried to replicate the finer points of his band. This is a very complicated album and may not be for everyone, yet for those who it is for, listening to it will feel like one big holiday.