I think the run from The Lioness to The Magnolia Electric Co. is one of the peakiest peaks of any artist from that era (perhaps even ever), and is still somewhat underrated in general beyond MEC. Even outside of that thereās enough great material that it feels like itāll take me a lifetime to properly digest it all. Sojourner in particular is a treasure trove. He was a very special talent. 5/5.
One of the 5est 5s I can give. Iāll write more when I can but Didnāt It Rain and Magnolia Electric Co. resonate so deeply for me in every way- the lyrics, the delivery, the recording, the tunes- that I canāt give him anything else.
Heās fabulous. My only slight criticism is that he can be a tiny bit one dimensional, but he does the thing that he does absolutely brilliantly. I particularly like the sparser, acoustic stuff where he can be almost frighteningly intense. Wavered between a 4 and a 5 and went for a slightly harsh 4.
Yeah, this. Lightening Risked It All is almost minimalist in both composition and lyrical content, but it just cuts you. Something about the way he plays those few guitar notes, like heās wrenching the sound out with his entire being, just to keep himself alive. Might go listen to it now.
Itās almost too much at times. You have to be in the mood for it.
This is why Iām finding him a little hard to score really. Objectively, heās a 4 or 5 I guess. But I personally canāt really listen to music like this anymore. Itās just too heavy.
One of those artists that sometimes Iāll hear a track on shuffle and for a few days Iāll listen to no one else because all other music seems somehow irrelevant. No one captured that lonely, broken, strangely defiant feeling that only exists at the bottom of the well of depression like he did.
If youāve never bellowed āmama here comes midnight with a dead moon in its jawsā into the night air half cut on red wine Iām not sure you and I can even begin to understand one another.
5, is what Iām saying.
I have similar issue with Joy Division, but in the end I think its a sign that the artist has achieved exactly what they wanted artistically. You canāt really mark them down for it. It would be a bit like complaining that Guernica isnāt a bit more cheerful and colourful.
Hmm, fair point. I guess what Iām trying to say is, I really dig Molina but Iām always listening it at kind of a safe distance and I canāt really rate something in that emotional place as highly as I can an artist that aligns more with my headspace. Or something.
One of those āNot sure they exist as never heard mentioned outside DiSā artists for me
My brother and dad have listened to MEC, and neither are on DiS. (Although that was because I recommended Molina to themā¦)
Trying to work out which album this is
Probably Raditude. Easy mistake to make.
What a lyric, ay?
IMO, one of the greatest voices in popular music. He had a great understated vibrato to his voice and a warmth and vulnerability to his singing that always made everything seem real and unpretentious.
The undisputed king of sad late night walks in my 20s.
Tremendous open-hearted and honest song-writing that mixed a kind of mythic country poetry (moon, stars and desolate empty roads) with the burden of depression. Instead of trying to make you feel like everything would be ok he made you feel like it was ok to suffer. In that way itās some of the realest and most relateable music Iāve heard.
Not since Neil Young has the A Minor chord been put to such good use.
Some of my favs
and because itās nice to see him having fun for a change
oh and heās also responsible for my most viewed vid on youtube so thanks Jason RIP!
5/5
I first discovered him when I met a guy back home who had this whole new taste in music that captivated me and it felt so obscure and magical. I fell in love with everything he played to me, which was mostly Will Oldham tbh but I couldnāt fathom how all this music existed that I loved and had never heard of before or how this Wigan boy had ever discovered so much of it.
He wrote me a short list of albums I should check out and Magnolia Electric Co was on there. Itās one of my favourite albums of all time, but it also represents a time of discovering all the sounds and albums that would sort of define me, if that isnāt too wanky.
I remember listening to it whilst cycling around Seaside, the weird town where Truman Show was filmed, under a canopy of magnolia trees. Every time I hear Hold on Magnolia now I feel like Iām there again, cycling through a bizarre suburb designed to be a paradise but all the dreamy houses were vacant and haunting and everything you saw was fake. I remember the threat of a hurricane and that heavy sticky air, everyone I saw was smiling but I was just listening to my music and thinking how sad it was there, and how scary that they were just ignoring the storm, and the alligators and swamps beyond the fake town. It was a very fitting soundtrack.
Heās my go to whenever thereās thunder.
Such a 5. Every lineās a potential tattoo and every song sounds like itās just been hewn out of a mountain or dug out of the ground rather than composed by a human. Shoutout to William Schaff for that genius level artwork on magnolia electric co. too.
He knew his way around a one liner did tāold Jason.