I've been slightly putting off writing about this record because I just don't think I can do it justice. In the five years I've had a copy, this album has continued to grow on me and I still find new parts I love with each listen. Whilst I consider The Lioness to be my favourite Jason Molina album, I think it's safe to say that Magnolia Electric Co is the greatest. If people ask me where to start, it's almost wrong to suggest anywhere other than here; sure, he has released some incredible albums aside from this, but this is surely the canonical Molina album. Both ends of his career are represented here as the turning point from Songs: Ohia to Magnolia Electric Co. Start here. Play the album over and over again. Fall in love with it.
The second Farewell Transmission starts I get shivers down my spine. I've heard so many covers of this song that it's become a treat to hear the original. If this album is the starting point, then it's pretty fitting that the first song people will hear is his most famous and one of his best. I'm sure some would say it's over-rated, but I think it gets the praise it deserves for very good reasons. It's a perfect moment spread across seven minutes. The transition from that into I've Been Riding With the Ghost is perfect too, with the ghostly backing vocals brilliantly at odds with the hints of country throughout. Just Be Simple rounds out the trio of opening songs, all of which have become fan-favourites. When the first three songs in row are all easy additions to a theoretical Greatest Hits album, you know you're listening to something special.
Side B starts off a bit strangely with country singer Lawrence Peters taking on the vocals on The Old Black Hen followed by Scout Niblet singing Peoria Lunch Box Blues. It possibly shows that Jason wasn't necessarily thinking at the time that this album would be the landmark or turning point it would become; who would make such a choice on an album that would be hailed (by me, at least) as his greatest? The demos show how the songs sound with Jason singing - his voice sounds different on The Old Black Hen, perhaps a sign that it made sense for someone else to sing it; his version of Peoria is nice, but Scout's vocals add so much to it. The studio version hints back to Jason's lo-fi days, but with some drums tastefully brought to the front of the mix.
After the quiet end of Peoria Lunch Box Blues, John Henry Split My Heart opens up with a bombastic riff, briefly giving way to a few bars of piano and the opening lines, before launching back into the huge sound of the intro. The demo holds very few clues that the studio version would hit so hard. The outro, reprising the lines of "Long dark blues", is another perfect moment. Hold On Magnolia is the gentle closer that no one knew the album needed. Part of me wonders how the album would feel if it and John Henry were swapped around - perhaps it would have been too much to go from Magnolia into that start of John Henry. It's a reflective ending, and feels like a goodbye for the Songs: Ohia of old before fully becoming Magnolia Electric Co. Maybe it would have felt too forced to have both opener and closer feature the same lines. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Jason's vocals are incredible on it either way.
There are moments throughout the album where you can hear Jason urging the other musicians on through the way he sings - halfway through Just Be Simple, towards the start of Almost Was Good Enough and, famously, at the end of Farewell Transmission. Much like with Ghost Tropic, you can picture them in the studio together at those exact moments, with Steve Albini doing some fine work behind the mixing desk.
You can dwell on the meanings of Jason's lyrics for endless amounts of time, but I've always found myself most strongly attached to individual lines - "Real truth is no one gets it right / Real truth is we're all supposed to try" and "I will be gone / But not forever" from Farewell Transmission (the latter the name I picked for my Jason Molina best-of I made for in the car - it was incredibly tricky boiling his work down to 80 minutes!). Also "If Heaven's really coming back / I hope it has a heart attack / When it sees how dangerous it is for guys like that", "Half I'm going to use to pay this band / Half I'm saving, cause I'm going to owe them" and "Hold on Magnolia" for its willing and repetition, but also when it's paired with "I think it's almost time". He was a great lyricist.
Anyway, I eventually bought a copy on my first trip to Truck Store in Oxford. I'd just accepted a job in the city and came up from London one Saturday morning to look at flats. Once I was done, I made the trip over to Truck to see what I was in for from what would become my new local record shop. I'd had a look at the website and knew that Karl, the guy who runs it, was a big Molina fan, so wasn't at all surprised to find a copy there that morning. Over the following years I filled a lot of gaps in my Molina collection there and have had some nice chats with Karl about them.
The reissue is lovely and much-needed - albums like this shouldn't be only available as second-hand first-pressings; they should be in every collection. William Schaff's artwork looks incredible and the demos, as mentioned, are not some fodder for the collectors, but fascinating alternative takes and nearly as important as the album itself. I was too late to get a copy with the bonus 10" (but will one day hunt one down), but luckily the mp3 download code includes the two songs from there. This is really very lucky because The Big Game is Every Night is another of Jason very finest songs. To think it was abandoned to be a Japanese bonus-track is mind-boggling. It's one of his longer songs, but feels effortless in its ability to keep your attention. It's a hidden gem in a career of countless gems.
A couple of years later I picked up a copy of the original cd pressing (in Amoeba Records) which also included the demos here, but with different names and in a different order - Farewell Transmission is called The Long Dark Blues (arguably a better name? Certainly a grander one),
I've Been Riding With the Ghost is I Made the Change and John Henry Split My Heart is You Can't Save Everything; Almost Was Good Enough is missing from both, but we have demos of Whip Poor Will (a song that would appear again years later on Josephine) and The Big Game is Every Night instead. I didn't know that they were the same demos when I bought it, but it makes sense that they would be, and I would have still bought it anyway.
I say this a lot, but I thoroughly and whole-heartedly recommend this album. No good record collection is complete without it.
Format: Double 12", gatefold, picture sleeves
Tracks: 17
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 15/03/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
