MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO.
Fading Trails
Secretly Canadian
· Hodge-podge deluxe.
As Fading Trails’ bio sheet proudly proclaims, Jason Molina’s prolific output as Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co., and now under his own name (see: last week’s solo LP Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go), has captured Molina’s living experiences in nine different locations, recorded with a dozen different bands. Fading Trails stitches together bits and pieces from four previously unreleased sessions recorded with Steve Albini and Camper van Beethoven’s David Lowery as well as sessions in Memphis’ infamous Sun Studios and Molina’s home.
Since settling on Magnolia’s current incarnation as a proper band with largely set-in-place players, Molina’s hit a constant, albeit unique, Neil Young-infused homage to 1970s rock. Continual lyrical references to ghosts, the moon and lonely roads may indeed make for Molina’s case as an auteur of his own invention, Fading Trails as yet another album’s-worth of the same old thoughts, ideas, and hooks does start to wear a bit thin. Given the nature of its hodge-podge creation, the quality of the full sessions from which these miniscule glimpses were snipped is suspect.
That’s not to say there’s no real highlights (there always are), the tack piano of "Lonesome Valley," the driving propulsion of "Montgomery" and the antiquated hiss of the solo acoustic "Spanish Moon Fall and Rise" proving there’s at least some steam still left in Molina’s song-mill workhorse. "Memphis Moon" and "Talk to Me Devil, Again" approach a brilliant Calexico-style atmosphere – a direction one hopes Molina continues to explore.
It’s hard to fault someone for doing what they do so well and continuing to do it as very few others can. With Fading Trails yet another great ’70s throwback, however, it’s just getting harder to get excited each time Molina jumps back on the horse.
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