Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
(Secretly Canadian)
Never before has Jason Molina been so detached from the Songs: Ohia recording process. With a large backing band and Steve Albini positioning the mics, this Songs: Ohia record sounds like no other. Molina has given up control just to see what comes out of it, to see if his one-man band can become a supergroup with the flick of a switch. All the effort on the album seems to be towards turning this big backing band into an unapologetic recreation of the old Nashville sound. The lyrics even seem more generic in order to better fit the (vintage-)mainstream format.
Only two or three songs on the record have resonance, whereas usually an Ohia album is a cohesive whole giving most of the songs weight. "Almost Was Good Enough" is a dark churning song with a trembling guitar part that revisits the same blue collar themes Molina explored on Didn't It Rain. Molina walks a fine line lyrically between hope and despair. The dark sounds and refrain of "no-one makes it out" makes it seem like the song will fall into despair, but in the end, the song reveals itself as a casual conversation during a round of beers, Molina offering his life as a reason for hope. These same themes of "change" and "making it" are presented earlier in "I've Been Riding With the Ghost." The song's female backing vocals and fast-paced guitar lend themselves well to the songs imagery of riding and reaching a crossroads. The song sheds more light onto the core message of the album, that the blue collar worker is too easily swayed to live beyond their means and that those who can't live simply become imprisoned by debt.
However, the album and its message are made less potent by Molina's detachment from the recording. This detachment is most prominent in the two tracks with guest lead vocals. Molina hands over the mic to Lawrence Peters for "The Old Black Hen" and to Scout Niblett for "Peoria Lunch Box Blues." Peters' Merle Haggard-esque barroom-rattling croon makes the group's old Nashville sound seem that much more authentic, however it moves it that much further from the Ohia sound. Niblett's chirping, flighty delivery seems to pay no mind to the words she's singing nor the music being played; it exists on its own plane, all else be damned. Perhaps just to hear how Molina himself sings these songs, the first pressing of the album comes with a bonus album consisting of the nine demos that would form these eight songs. "The Old Black Hen" seems to just be a below average song; in fact, Molina's delivery in the demo makes it seem like he intended the song for Peters. The demo for "Peoria Lunch Box Blues," however, is great; Niblett's delivery on the "official" recording is a distraction and misplaced, something like Christina Aguilera speaking at a Pittsburgh steel union rally.
A sister record to Magnolia Electric Co. is due this summer: Pyramid Electric Co.. That record will have no backing band and, like Magnolia, will have no overdubs. So don't necessarily take this experiment to be a style change, like Dylan going electric. However, with these experiments in style, it seems like it may be a while until Molina can once again make a record as focused and with as much purpose as Didn't It Rain.
(Oldham : Viva Last Blues :: Molina : Magnolia Electric Co.)
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