Magnolia Electric Co. Josephine (Secretly Canadian)
4/5
By: Liam Manley
If you take the time to look all around, you'll find male desperation in abundance. Its many forms saturate popular culture to the point where it's almost inescapable: It's there in the pages of Nuts or Zoo, Judd Apatow productions, and there if you stare deep enough into Peter Andre’s eyes. Conveniently, Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina knows a thing or two about desperation. Romantic desperation, at least. Dissecting hearts chamber by chamber since his Songs: Ohia days, Josephine is yet one more instalment of loss and loneliness.
Hetero-centric to the core, (the maleness of MEC’s aesthetic is unavoidable, from the diminutive leader's heavy monobrow to his backing band of Chunklet-a-likes), Molina faithfully guides us through prairies, horizons, obscure Tennessee or Virginia towns, detailing the sadness that inhabits them. Yet each Stetson-clad cee-un-dubya cliché would spill forth like so much tumbleweed were it not for one simple fact: every hackneyed, piece-of-shit lyric that forms around his honeyed tonsils can’t help but sound effortlessly gorgeous.
So potent is the effect that lines such as "There's just so much a man can miss/And just no end to what he can regret/And I'm holding on to whatever hope shows through/And tonight, little darling, my heart’s with you"are delivered with such grace and vulnerability that cynicism is not an option. Some song titles speak for themselves (not least ‘Heartbreak At Ten Paces’), redolent of romanticised notions of manful solitude; The almost a capella intro of ‘Hope Dies Last’ and the B-3 piano-led ‘Little Sad Eyes’ stink of near-empty, low-lit bar rooms at closing time, hopes and hearts dashed in equal measure.
I know that country-rock’s reliance on analogies and allegories aren’t to be relied upon: women aren’t towns that you visit; relationships aren’t roads you travel down; I know the moon is always the same, whether you’re in Kansas or Carlisle; All this considered, the current brittle state of my heart probably doesn’t assist in formulating an objective view of such a record as this. I am the perfect person for this album - I am a desperate male. That realisation made, I feel at one with Peter Andre. So, Pete, if you're out there, pop over to my place. You look like you should spend some time with Josephine.
Artists in this article: Magnolia Electric Co.
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