Jason Molina released a huge number of records in his lifetime and, evidently, recorded enough for countless more. This is something to pleased about because I've nearly heard everything he released whilst he was alive, and I'm not ready to stop hearing new songs just yet.
When Secretly Canadian announced that they were putting out a 7" of him covering two Black Sabbath songs I ordered one straight away. It's hard to know with his releases whether they're going to be plentiful and readily available everywhere, or super-rare. I've erred on the side of caution recently and it mostly hasn't been necessary. In this case, that caution came at a price; namely the customs due on packages sent from the US (I've never really understood why some parcels do and some don't get charged extra, but it is a constant pain in the arse when buying from the States - between the shitty exchange rate, postage costs and customs charges it really is becoming expensive). I added a couple of other Molina albums to the order (What Comes After the Blues and Molina & Johnson LPs), so in my mind, the cost could be spread across the three. The LPs were still a bargain (I think they were on sale at the time), but this 7" was effectively £13, which is a lot for two songs.
It's even more for two songs when you discover that the songs together total only three-and-a-half minutes. Still, every extra minute we get to hear Jason sing is a minute worth paying for (and had I bought it more locally for £7 it'd still have been expensive and short). Those three-and-a-half minutes are, of course, lovely. Solitude works perfectly - it's slower than Molina’s usual “simple” songs, but with his gravelly voice it is every bit as dark as a Sabbath song should be. His voice struggles a bit on “crying” (which isn't a particularly difficult Ozzy-note in the original) but it's otherwise flawless. The cracks and hisses add to the warmth in true fashion. Snowblind is a bit more upbeat in the guitar-playing and a much more “rock” song for Jason. It is brutally short (a statement true of the song - 1:14, the single - 3:27, and Jason’s life in general).
The idea of Jason covering Black Sabbath excited me greatly - I knew of his early metal-years and wanted to hear how he'd approach songs by one of the first and finest metal bands. I was hoping he'd choose Sabbath songs I knew better (that is, from the first two albums) but these are wonderful and likely better than if he'd covered Iron Man or Paranoid. The b-side is etched with the ram's head from the cover (poorly photographed below) and the artwork is another excellent William Schaff drawing, the masking-tape cross a nice Black Sabbath reference.
Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £13.45 new
Bought: Secretly Canadian Records
When: 09/12/17
Colour: Black
Etching: Image of a ram's head on b-side
mp3s: no
