Magnolia Electric Co.
About this Album
The Magnolia Electric Co. was recorded in three days in July 2002 at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio in Chicago, with a live band built around Jason Molina and players from his touring circle.[1][4] It was a deliberate turn toward rock, prepared with demos, two live shows and Neil Young's Harvest as listening homework.[5]
The record is widely described as Molina's most unified and fully realized work, a triumphantly bleak set of songs about ghosts, the road and post-industrial decline.[3][4] It was the seventh and last album credited to Songs: Ohia, though it is also treated as the first record by the band that became Magnolia Electric Co.[1] Metacritic lists it at 85 out of 100.[1]
Songs
References
- The Magnolia Electric Co. (Wikipedia) — Recording dates, personnel, track listing, release and reception scores
- Great Records Will Find An Audience: Steve Albini On Jason Molina (The Quietus) — Albini on the speed, budget and experimental feel of the sessions
- Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Co. (PopMatters) — Single-take recording of the song and critical reading of its themes
- The Magnolia Electric Co. Turns 20 (Stereogum) — Recording context, sound and the album's tension between fatalism and hope
- Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Co. (Treble) — Album genesis, Neil Young homework, interpretation of the song's imagery