Mr. James has a solo album on the near horizon, most likely arriving in the fall. “Another Jacket record is in progress,” he added — “I’ve just recently rediscovered this desire for scorching rock ’n’ roll, and that’s hopefully what we’ll get around to” — though it probably won’t see release this year. He spoke by phone from California; these are excerpts from the conversation.

Image The cover of the cover of Mt Morning Jacket’s “It Still Moves (Deluxe Reissue),” an expanded version of the band’s 2003 album.

What was behind the decision to reshape the sound of this album?

“It Still Moves” is really the only record in our catalog that I’ve always felt I wanted to remix. Part of the fun of that record was that we recorded it all to tape, and it was all super-duper organic. But when we mixed it originally, we didn’t have enough time. We thought we were happy with it, but there are certain things that bothered me when I would listen to it, like, “Oh my God, you can’t hear that guitar solo.”

I hear much more presence and clarity in this version. Is that how you’d characterize it?

That’s a good way to put it. We joke and refer to the wet blanket — like you’re removing the wet blanket that was lying on top of the speakers. Kevin Ratterman, who has an amazing studio in Louisville, worked on the last couple of records with us, and we spent time with him bringing it all back up in the mix. He really understands the essence of what we do live, and the power we were hoping to feel from this record.

This was the last album for two early members of the band, and the first with Patrick Hallahan on drums. Does it feel to you like a marker of transition?

It was a really crazy time. Our first two records are a lot quieter and more studio-based. We kind of had this feeling like we wanted to make a more quote-unquote “rock” record. Then Patrick joined, and really brought a new, herculean power to the band. And there was also the pressure of signing a major-label deal and wanting to do justice to that, but not in a superslick, polished way. We still wanted it to feel like us. So all those things were happening at once.