JASON MOLINA
Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go
Secretly Canadian
· Never more alone.
Jason Molina’s first truly solo foray came hand-in-hand with his rejection of the Songs: Ohia band name he’d been hiding behind from the very start. While that record (Pyramid Electric Co.) didn’t quite make its way out of the shadow of the Ohia finale counterpoint, The Magnolia Electric Co. (the title of which has since become the namesake of Molina’s band), Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go grabs its own piece of land with music as direct as the album’s stark and candid cover shot. Within Let Me Go’s first few bars, Molina sings, "You don’t forgive the silence for not speaking up," setting the mandate for the record that follows.
Recorded in near-total darkness, Let Me Go is intended as Molina’s deepest exploration of self and depression. While lines like "I lay low enough so the Moon wouldn’t waste its light on me," ("Get Out Get Out Get Out Get Out") occasionally pull the proceedings down into diary level navel gazing, tiny beauties like opener "It’s Easier Now" and "It Must Be Raining There Forever" make up in direct minimalism whatever the album may lack in polished editing. Bringing in a sleepy drum machine for much of the album’s second half makes for an easy comparison to the most dour moments of Glasgow’s Arab Strap (with whom Molina recorded Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness in 2000).
Endlessly prolific and often fascinating, while the Molina of Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go may not be quite so fiery as his usual self, the detour is still one worth taking the next time you hate yourself and want the world to (quietly) know it.
|
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.