Ghost Tropic has long been one of the Jason Molina albums I've struggled with the most. I found a copy on cd in Amoeba Records in San Francisco in 2015 having been on a huge Molina-trip for a couple of years. It was great and I was finding gem after gem in his back-catalogue. I think Ghost Tropic threw me off because I wasn't instantly floored by it. Years later, I still play it the least often.
Ghost Tropic represents a side of Molina that appears occasionally - playing very sparse, long songs. A few such songs have appeared on splits or singles, but Ghost Tropic is the only album where that is the theme. Whereas Magnolia Electric Co. were the very full-band side of his songwriting, most of the Songs: Ohia work was folky but still busy - there are great songs where he races through lyrics with only an acoustic guitar and some accompaniment, and that speed was one of the things I enjoyed the most.
The effect of the slow pace of Ghost Tropic has it's pros and cons. Every single word, guitar strum, or note from any instrument sounds intensely deliberate. Turn it up loud enough and you find yourself thinking about each individual note, hit or pluck; you can picture the various musicians very carefully and thoughtfully striking each moment. More than on a lot of his albums, this one to me conjures the images of the four of them in the studio, crafting the songs with great precision. In that respect, it's an incredible album, unique in what it makes you feel.
The problem however was that I wasn't ready for that experience and, as interesting as it is, it doesn't result in anything that I'd consider a highlight. It's only really a small step away from some other Molina work - you'd still broadly categorise them in the same way - but it's far enough to throw the listener off. When I got back from SF it was at the top of my pile of music to listen to and I remember being baffled. I distinctly remember being surprised by how little happened and how long it seemed to go on for. The second half comprises two 11-minute plus songs - I recall glancing at the cd player and being amazed by digital readout of how long the song had been playing. It could have been during either of Not Just a Ghost's Heart or Incantation.
The first half prepares you for those songs in their sparsity, but not quite their duration. Lightning Risked It All feels like it's building to something but never does. The lyrics get increasingly spread out until they eventually stop; the song continues for a bit then also ends rather unceremoniously. The Body Burned Away broods in a similar way, but reaches more of a conclusion. In a lot of ways, there are comparisons to Low, a band I wouldn't normally consider as having much in common with Molina's work - their albums are often full of songs that feel like they're intentionally not going where you want them to.
I found this copy online recently and picked it up along with a few other bits. I'm trying to flesh out my Molina collection and I'd certainly like to have them all on vinyl. I was pleased to get a copy, but knew I'd never play it as much as Magnolia Electric Co., Let Me Go or Josephine (or any of the others really - it's hard to name the highlights when there are so many). Strangely the labels are on the wrong sides of the record, but it's instantly obvious as side B has two very large chunks of uninterrupted groove. What's more confusing is the that information etched in the run-out groove implies that side B is in fact side A, so the error must go back as far as the masters. The artwork is as bare as the cd - just the title in white in the top right corner. People often refer to the first, self-titled album as "The Black Album", but in artwork, theme and sound, this album is almost certainly the more deserving of such a definitive title.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Norman Records
When: 07/03/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
