Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine

Judge Josephine as the cathartic diversion for Magnolia Electric Co. key songwriter Jason Molina. With an apartment fire taking the life of his bassist Evan Farrell, Molina expresses his lose by recasting his emotional blues through his song narratives. Pining for a lost love filters through the country ballad “Shenandoah”, a slide guitar echoes a slippery, trailing tear. Weariness fills the opener “O! Grace”: “Its a long way between horizons/ And it gets farther everyday.”  Equipped with additional instrumental ensemble (piano, dobro, lapsteel, saxophone) and the wonderful ear of Steve Albini to capture it all to tape, there is something captivating in his melancholy release. And the ghost of Josephine never sits still.  Wanders out of her own self-titled song, she materializes eerily on “Hope Dies Last” with its allusion to fire and longingly on the album send-off “An Arrow In The Gate.” Though familiar territory, Molina continues to captures the ubiquitious themes of tragedy and loneliness.

Listen To: O! Grace