Magnolia Electric Co.
Josephine
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Label: Secretly Canadian
Jason Molina has made it known that Josephine serves as an indirect tribute to Magnolia Electric Co.’s former bassist Evan Farrell, who died suddenly in 2007; this raises the stakes of how this latest record will be perceived in several ways. Firstly, Molina’s switch from the moniker Songs: Ohia has been a slow creative free fall for his progress as a songwriter. While nothing has changed drastically in the group’s personnel, nor his fondness for the downbeat fusion of slow indie guitars and country nocturne, his songwriting has grown increasingly muddled and disconnected since the 2003 changeover, bottoming out on his solo debut, Pyramid Electric Co. Turning this tide and honoring Farrell in a dignified way is a heavy creative burden and one that invites fans and critics to start sharpening their knives. Molina has responded to all of these circumstances by making an understated masterpiece that harnesses sweeping, ambitious storytelling while staying true to all of the small details that elicit an honest flow of emotions.
Josephine is divided into two separate halves, hearkening back to the philosophy that Side A and B of a record can bridge two distinct ideas under the umbrella of one overarching concept. Almost cinematically, we’re given a linear statement on the nature of grief in a way that doesn’t wallow in hopeless agony. Side A is devoted to the pleasant memories of Josephine; the imagined woman on whom the kaleidoscopic stages of loss and longing are projected. Molina displays a fearless optimism and life-affirming energy in his singing, celebrating his character’s life as a commentary on Farrell’s. A stately piano gives “O! Grace” a clear and accessible poetry that the band has never attempted before yet pulls off easily with their best mesh of chorus and verse. Lines like “I’ve been as lonesome as the world’s first ghost” glisten in the sunlight under this bouncier scheme. The mood and setting shifts to a solitary country hymn in “The Rock of Ages” and later, to a classic Southern hotel room in “Whip-poor- will”. Here the narrative notices the shadows and heartaches in the fictional Southern Cross Hotel of honky tonk’s past but finds a measure of joy in the serene atmosphere. Her passing elicits a oneness with humanity and memory but also dreadful foreshadowing. As the cries of “Josephine” punctuate the final chorus of “Hope Dies Last,” we can see what’s coming for the duration of the record.
While, Side A has the unmistakable feeling of a late afternoon funeral followed by a restless night, Side B, with its allusions to the sad and desolate open road, is the long and dispiriting drive home. The final seven songs recall the darkness of early Songs: Ohia but with stronger force and clarity. Molina adds heavy and distraught Neil Young-style electric guitars and a Hammond B3 organ to overshadow the playful and rambling acoustic instruments, setting the tone for the opening half of the LP. With “Little Sad Eyes”, where “good news is just goodbye,” on a lonely stretch of highway, the organ makes sadness plain but not smeared or runny. Heavy percussion and louder guitars, likewise, keep “Little Knoxville Girl” from slipping head over teakettle on the oil slicks of sadness. Despair is setting in but the fascinating musical motion of Magnolia Electric Co. doesn’t cease, lest things get truly dank and brooding. A climax is reached on “Shiloh,” the second title which references a Civil War battlefield, along with “Shenandoah”. True sadness sets in but is later snatched back on the final song “An Arrow In the Gale” which asks the long departed Josephine “which one of us is free?” The story has ended and the war between fond recollections and a scary future seems to be at peace for the moment but also destined to return with the doubts of mortality seeping in.
Steve Albini is back in his role as producer and this is the height of his six year relationship with the band. The stumbles and long pauses of their last work together, Fading Trails, may have stoked a fire to make something more traditionally country and less dependent on morose poetry that trails off into nothingness like Molina has done in the past. The Albini method works best when each musical voice is mixed at high volumes and the songs fight their way forward like a locomotive; inaction kills his ability to bring out the shape in each musical instrument. Josephine’s brisk pace maintains itself such that his production doesn’t get lost in the high grass of lyrical concepts or instrumental variance. On the contrary, every guitar, keyboard and drum is heard quite clearly.
By avoiding many pratfalls into oblivion, Molina’s concept album emerges as an exciting and complex success story. As a tribute record it is truly stirring and as a comeback album it’s eye-opening. Through a lens of storytelling, each chapter is captivating and as music, the tone is compulsively friendly and inviting. If this all sounds like praise that you might attribute to a person, then it really is time that you meet Josephine.
by Neal Fersko
