[.ca] Magnolia Electric Co

Chronique amazon.fr:
Souvent placé à la droite de Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy) sur le podium discret de l'alternative country américaine, Jason Molina sera plus facilement comparé à Neil Young ou Bob Dylan avec ce septième opus de Songs: Ohia. Un album aux épaules larges qui risque d'en surprendre plus d'un. Fait notable, Magnolia Electric Co. ressemble déjà plus à une œuvre collective, produite en compagnie d'un groupe de scène, qu'au résultat de la seule personnalité de Molina, plus ou moins entouré selon les cas. Ensuite, le son millésimé 70's, enregistré en prise directe par le puriste Steve Albini, associé à des compositions plus musclées, dégage une puissance nouvelle. Heureusement la "virilité" acquise par le groupe ne verse pas dans le gros rock chromé. Mis à part un "The Old Black Hen" un peu trop folklorique (dont les responsabilités vocales ont été déléguées), l'écriture enfiévrée de Molina fait merveille et coule un nouvel alliage de férocité et d'humilité. Finalement, ses nouveaux attributs donnent à Songs: Ohia une contenance épique qui jaillit magnifiquement sur les morceaux de bravoure que sont "Farewell Transmission", "I've Been Riding With the Ghost" ou "Almost Was Good Enough". Fermement enraciné dans le terreau social, Magnolia Electric Co. est un album "rustique" et imposant. --Fabrice Privé

Let's Get Drunk and Brood:
If you've read my previous reviews, you're probably familliar with my method of buying albums: wandering around Amoeba records for hours, then deciding on some random album because it has a really neat cover (and if I'm feeling especially critical - cool song titles). This has resulted in a few poor choices, which I'll leave to your imagination, but also some gold nuggets, and this record is one. I should point out that I'm a big fan of nocturnal, atmospheric music with a distinctly rural-american tinge, and that pretty well describes this album. My knee-jerk classification (if that kind of thing matters to you) would be to say alt-country, but lumping Songs: Ohia in with the like of Whiskeytown and Son Volt doesn't quite gel, especially given the strong blues influence throughout. To dive into more specific analysis, let's break down the record into its components. The voices jump out immediately. Jason Molina leads the pack, singing lead on three quarters of the albums eight tracks. He channels Neil Young to an extent; they share the same kind of drawling intensity, but whatever comparison you want to make, the sound is still a remarkably pleasant one. The voices on the remaining two tracks are a mixed bag. The male vocal on 'The Old Black Hen' (I THINK this is Lawrence Peters, based on the breif liner notes, but I'm not positive) pours it on a little thick for my taste, but bigger fans of a classic country (definitely an applicable term on this track) might dig it more than I do. Scout Niblett's vocals on 'Peoria Lunch Box Blues' on the other hand, steal the spotlight. Her turn here is a slow, blues drenched number with a subtle melody sung in a smoky vocal, not unlike Cat Power's Chan Marshall, but in a higher register and with a bit more force and confidence than Chan usually puts forth. It's positively mellifluous (I've been looking for an excuse to use that word all week). The sonic canvas over which all of this occurrs is comprised of twanging electric guitars, (the kind where you'd expect to see a lit cigarette placed in the head), madolins, lapsteels, organs, and thrumming basses. 'John Henry Split My Heart' is as forceful a rock number as you're likely to find in this kind of setting, with distortioned guitars churning over a pounding bass drum that connotates the intensity of the steel-drivin man - that is until it drops off into a piano solo only to build back up again. 'Just Be Simple' is a low tempo, relatively laid back, melancholy rumination. 'Farewell Transmission' opens the record with a clean guitar and builds up to a dramatic conclusion that ends with the command "listen!" 'Hold on Magnolia' on the other hand, is a slow ballad right out of a barroom in the old west that ends the record on it's sweetest moment. The lyrics are... well, they're there. They're not really the focus; no passages come to mind that are brilliant enough on paper to be really worth mentioning, but there aren't any cringe-worthy moments here either. Mostly they fit the tone and atmosphere of the music. And that's the biggest deliver about this album: it's atmosphere. Actually, given that, listening to this is probably bad for my health - it makes me want to smoke a few ciggys, drink some gin and wallow in the poetry of my own sadness for 45 minutes of a warm summer night. So if that sounds like your kind of thing, then you'll enjoy this, and even if not, it's still worth at least a listen. Four stars.

Vengeful Yearning:
To be honest, I have never been a fan of Songs:Ohia. Molina's warbled bedsit musings seemed to follow a little too closely on the heels of the predeceeding, Will Oldham(a.k.a. Palace, Bonny Prince Billy). To these ears, it all came across as meticulously contrived. Then a friend played me this. Maybe it was all a case of being in the right place at the wrong time. Magnolia is the best thing I've heard all year & I can't get enough of it. In other words, the man has finally gotten out of his head & hit the open road. Now, I'm an ardent admirer of Neil Young in his prime. But I haven't much liked anything since Rust Never Sleeps. Molina's certainly mining the same shaft,& I'm close to giving him the same copycat ribbing. But this puts post '79 Shakey to shame. Give me this over Greendale any day. Or Harvest Moon for that matter. "Farewell Transmission" is a fitting jumpstart to a top down tour of the Grain Belt in mid Winter. Lines like,"Mama, here comes midnight with the big moon in her jaws" are as vengeful as they're yearning. The punchline, "must be a big star about to fall" only spurns one on. "Just Be Simple" is a plea for sanity if I ever heard one & "The Old Black Hen" may just stop you in your tracks. Suddenly, Molina's fragile warble has been replaced by a sturdy Merle Haggard bellow. Hearing someone else sing only serves to highlight the talent behind it all. The same could be said of "Peoria Lunch Box Blues". But Scout Niblett's off key willowyness only makes this track more inacessible. I'll give it another listen but it's the one thing here that didn't grab me. Otherwise this would get the 5 star treatment. When I listen to the likes of "I've Been Riding With A Ghost" & "John Henry Split My Heart" I'm so thankful this guy finally found a band to back his musings up. They lend a much needed energy & focus to what has all been too somberly betrayed in the past. If your looking for balladry & melody, "Hold On Magnolia" may just be your little heartbroken light at the end of the tunnel. While I may have once written Molina off as unoriginal & cloying, Magnolina Electric Company has certainly given me pause. Like early REM, the lyrics leave you second guessing & the backing is Rock solid. Let's just hope it's not all a fluke. You know how moody these artists can be. In the meantime, I may just gingerly revisit some of Molina's past catalogue...

This shouldn't be this good, but it is.:
On the one hand, I should trash this for sounding so thoroughly like 70s Neil Young, without the lyrical directness, BUT I still can't stop listening to it. Spooky. If Neil Young ACTUALLY released this now people would fall all over themselves to laud his return to classic form. Now he doesn't have to. The version with the bonus demo disc is very worth searching out.

The Album of the Year...Again:
I expected to be "over" it by now, but I listen to MAGNOLIA all the time, and I've finally come to realize that it's a classic--like OK COMPUTER or AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA. Not that it sounds remotely like either of those albums; it's just a similarly unified, similarly dense musical statement. It's also a great point-of-entry for Jason Molina's other records, which I (ever the latecomer) have been collecting since hearing MAGNOLIA. Get caught up with this artist, if you haven't. You'll thank yourself.

Disappointed:
The whole album is not in the league of Farewell Transmission. I've tried to warm up to the other songs, but it's not working. Farewell Transmission alone is worth the $16 I paid for this album, but that does not change the fact that the rest of the songs are a) not even in the same league, and b) not in the same vein musically or atmospherically. Sounds like a bad Neil Young cover band at times. I will continue to listen in the hopes that I have a change of heart, but as of now, you can count me Disappointed in Baltimore

• Farewell Transmission
• I've Been Riding With the Ghost
• Just Be Simple
• Almost Was Good Enough
• Old Black Hen
• Peoria Lunch Box Blues
• John Henry Split My Heart
• Hold on Magnolia