Jim James's Eternally Even is darker with a lo-fi quality of funk and soul.

Jim James is up to his usual tricks on his second solo album, Eternally Even, and it’s just what humanity needs.

The My Morning Jacket frontman looks to heal the world through his latest collection. Tackling violence and hatred with love and peace — and maybe some ’70s psych-fi mixed with a touch of soulful R&B. “Oh I hate to burst your bubble/ Times change/ Entire lives reduced to rubble,” sings James over a tangible bass line and drowning synth on opening track “Hide in Plain Sight.”

Eternally Even is delightfully different from James’s previous album Regions of Light and Sound of God (and any MMJ album, for that matter). It’s darker with a lo-fi quality of funk and soul. Songs such as “True Nature” take you back to 1974 on a stroll through the streets of Chicago with Curtis Mayfield — shuffling drums, horns, fuzzy keyboards — the whole shebang.

James delivers musical healing through his instrumentals, but he also does so lyrically. Reaching out to mortality, the 38-year-old unites the relationship between life and death on closing track, “Eternally Even,” softly speaking over spacious instrumentals, “Truth be told/ There’s gold in growing older/ We open like the roses to the sun/ or the hand of a child/ Reaching up to mother over time.”

• Record: Eternally Even
• Artist: Jim James
• Label: ATO, Capitol
• Songs: (1) Hide in Plain Sight (2) Same Old Lie (3) Here in Spirit (4) The World's Smiling Now (5) We Ain't Getting Any Younger Pt. 1 (6) We Ain't Getting Any Younger Pt. 2 (7) True Nature (8) In the Moment (9) Eternally Even