Jim James has shared “Wowed Out,” the title track and latest single from his upcoming new solo album. A minimalist but strangely enthralling incantation of surrender to the sublime, “Wowed Out” sets its existential musing against a gorgeously transportive sonic backdrop, steadily sinking into the subconscious through its shapeshifting texture and ethereal atmosphere. An official music video with concept, analog videographic illusions, and editing by W.G. Rickel premieres today on YouTube. “Lately I’ve been really into music like Alice Coltrane’s spiritual recordings,” says Jim James, “where it’s just her and organ praying together, and there’s no major event. I wanted these songs to feel like a journey that takes you somewhere rewarding, without always trying for some big dramatic payoff like a massive chorus or a huge guitar solo.”
LISTEN TO “WOWED OUT” WATCH “WOWED OUT” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO The 3x GRAMMY® Award-nominated singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of My Morning Jacket’s fifth solo LP and first solo recording in eight years, Wowed Out arrives on Friday, August 28. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now. Taking its title from James’ self-coined term for the sensory overload he’s experienced in an age of chronic overstimulation, the album’s unlikely genesis closely mirrors its underlying themes of reclamation and rediscovery. Produced entirely by James, Wowed Out took shape in the fall of 2025 as he began sorting through a stash of recordings originally created for two major film-scoring projects in the early 2010s alongside his longtime friend, award-winning composer Brian Reitzell (known for his extensive work with Sofia Coppola, including such films as Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, and more). The Kentucky-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has now transformed this vast archive of music into an audacious, immersive new work of soulful psychedelia. “For years I kept returning to all this music we’d made and couldn’t figure out what to do with it,” James says. “But for some reason, last year everything started flowing in a really beautiful way.”
PRE-ORDER/PRE-SAVE WOWED OUT Wowed Out ultimately served as something of a dream project for a musician long infatuated with lost musical artifacts and sample-based experimentation. The album sets its existential musing against a gorgeously transportive sonic backdrop, steadily sinking into the subconscious through its shapeshifting texture and ethereal atmosphere. Mixed by James in collaboration with GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Emily Lazar (David Bowie, David Byrne, Beck), songs like “Lost Child” and a radiant folk-rock reverie, “Hands On,” offer a radically sincere statement against disillusionment, one that argues for tenderness as resistance, nature as refuge, and awe as a counterforce to dread and despair. In the end, Wowed Out unfolds as a fully realized world rather than a collection of moments, its revelatory enchantment affirming the restorative power of truly awakened attention. “There’ve been times in my life where I’ve felt lost or depressed, but music has always been the thing that pulls me back,” James says. “When I think about making this album, it almost feels like I was in some kind of dream and now I’m trying to remember what the dream was about. The whole thing brought me a lot of joy and comfort while I was making it, and I hope it brings everyone else a little joy and comfort too.” Wowed Out was first heralded last month by the first single, “Come Again,” a particularly potent moment on the LP that first surfaced from a cue James composed for a scene set in a teddy bear factory but then evolved into what Rolling Stone praised as “a marching, characteristically psychedelic meditation on finding beauty in a chaotic world.” An official music video, conceived and edited with analog videographic illusions by Louisville-based multimedia artist, musician, and conceptual engineer W.G. Rickel, is now streaming on YouTube.
Rickel is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and fabricator working out of Louisville, K. From stage design, lighting installation, video experiments, and surreal sculpture, to fronting the band FUTURE KILLER, his solo guitar metamorphosis, and ambient soundscapes, his interest in exploring the world through mystery and levity is met like a scratch to an itch. “‘Come Again’ came from feeling discouraged by how much things are changing in directions I don’t agree with, but trying to remember that there’s still so much beauty to be experienced,” says James. “You’ve got to just keep going and keep trying again and again and again to find joy.”
LISTEN TO “COME AGAIN” WATCH “COME AGAIN” (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) James will mark the arrival of Wowed Out with a number of solo headline concerts beginning November 28 at the Kentucky Performing Arts’ Brown Theatre in his hometown of Louisville, KY. In the meantime, James is also set for a solo acoustic headline performance at Park City, UT’s annual Song Summit on August 28. For complete details and ticket information, please visit www.jimjames.com/events. | 
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