Songs: Ohia - The Discography (2/2)

 

Jason Molina on the cover of Let me Go, Let me Go, Let me Go

The second part of the Songs: Ohia discography (check out part one here) is upon us and while we have only four albums to go three of them are certainly among Jason Molina's finest works. So without further ado let's start!

Protection Spells (2000)

Protection Spells feels very much like a prelude to Ghost Tropic and features similar, if slightly better, lofi production to The Ghost, with Molina sounding like he's singing to us from another room. The record contains nine songs, all of which which were improvised by Molina together with, in his words, "friends, bandmates and, at times, total strangers" during several Songs: Ohia tours. Similar to Ghost Tropic, many of these songs feature extremely minimal instrumentation with the focus largely being on the vocals. It manages to create a very special, anxious atmosphere where you can really feel the improvisation with each instrument sounding like it is waiting for something to happen, something to react to. This lends itself beautifully to the anxious lyrics Molina sings on for example, the opener, where he wishes for his partner to come home, to bring the relationship back to how it used to be: "Whatever we are now, seem hardly aware / Of what we're used to being / Of what we planned on being / And I'd trade it all / And I'd trade it all / For you to come home / For you to come home", or on Keep Only One Of Us Free: "The space you gave to me / You marked out the dividing lines / Keep only one of us free" which continues the themes of relationship struggle. This atmosphere is aided by the album's great use of space on this record, something Molina would perfect on both Ghost Tropic and Didn't It Rain, with the minimalism not feeling like a lack of ideas but instead a deliberate technique to give each vocal, each little chord, time to unfold itself to the listener and make them hang onto them.

Overall Protection Spells, despite the comparisons I have made to Ghost Tropic, is a record that stands on its own as an interesting piece of the Songs: Ohia discography and I would encourage everyone to not skip it as just another tour record throwaway, especially if you enjoy Ghost Tropic or Didn't It Rain.

Ghost Tropic (2000)

Ghost Tropic is perhaps Jason Molina's darkest work a fact that should tell you what you are getting into, given the generally depressive nature of his music. This is a slow and brooding record, taking the sparse and intimate approach of The Ghost, Protection Spells and Songs: Ohia to its logical conclusion. On it, he wrestles with loss, depression as well as his resulting nihilistic outlook on life. It's a record about uncertainty, about making choices and about tackling life even if it seems hopeless. Over the course of eight songs, Molina creates a truly oppressive atmosphere, like being in a dimly lit room deep in the forest with only your thoughts and the animals to keep you company. The record opens with Lightning Risked It All conjuring up an image of his anxious mind as he can "Still see no guides" and wonders if his choices really are choices or if perhaps he can't change his fate at all. Despite this at the end of the song he sings "Lightning standing drained and like us deeply risked it all / And like us, deeply risked it all / And like us, deeply risked it all / And like us, deeply risked it all", deciding to take his chances rather than being paralysed into inaction. But the danger seems to have caught up with him and his lover as the second track The Body Burns Away deals with the death of said lover, or their relationship, referencing the lightning of the first track. "Death as it shook you / You gave it a fool's look (...) I once had all the words / I forgot all the words / Held the binding lightning / I held the binding lightning / Began to burn away / We began to burn away (...) Began to burn away / Body burns away". As the album reaches it's middle point we are confronted with The Ocean's Nerves one of the darkest points in the Songs: Ohia discography as Molina contemplates suicide in order to be reunited with the one he sings about, comparing himself to a flame hanging near to the ocean's surface: "And I jealously want the ocean's deep nerve / I am a red flame hanging low to be close to it / Hanging low to be close to you". After this we get Not Just a Ghost's Heart, a song about Molina's lover and her defiance in the face of whatever life threw at them. This song strongly emphasizes the differences between her and his outlook on life, where she seems to always be able to find a way and "read the map" and even "After all this work / She's still built to sail", he wonders "Are we still able at night to watch / With human hearts at all" asking himself if he is not too far gone into the night (the dark) to still be considered human. This is later flipped again as he sing "She's still able at night to watch / With a human heart / With a human heart" because unlike his her heart is "Not just a ghost's heart". On the final track Incantation he walks through the empty city at night with her, pleading for her to "Work it out with me" as the blood, caution and lightning that have followed their story starting from the first track spread through the night in the second verse. This plea seems to fail as he left alone at the city's end and an absent star with whom as his companions he worked it out in the end.

Didn't It Rain (2002)

 

With Didn't It Rain Songs: Ohia brings some hope into the dark world we entered on Ghost Tropic. On the title track, Molina's lyrics describe a desolate world where he and others like him are left to fend for themselves: "No matter how dark the storm gets overhead / They someones watching from the calm at the edge / What about us when we're down here / We gotta watch our own backs", while emphasizing the need to find hope and a path forward even in the most dire situations: "Try to see the light of goodness burning down the track / Through the blinding rain, through the swaying wires" and extending a helping hand to those in need: "If I see you struggle all night and givin' all that you got / I see you working all night burning your light / To the last of it's dim watts / I'm gonna help you how I can", despite his struggles with trusting those around him: "I'll call you friend indeed / But I'm going to watch my own back". The song paints a picture of a man who distrusts the world and those around him, while also trying to find some connection and be of help. On the second track Steve Albini's Blues, named after the producer of this record and also Magnolia Electric Co., Molina describes an encounter with the underworld, or perhaps a vision of death, an especially dark topic considering his early death at the age of just 39, which he describes as follows: "See the light of the afterworld / Shining on the ruins / It's the light of nowhere else / Burning to the west / See its sulphury shine / See its sulphur shine". Other songs continue the themes of the first song, such as the wonderful Cross the Road, Molina, where nature is evoked again, similar to the storm on Didn't It Rain, to create a desolate and oppressive atmosphere,  describing a world whose whims we are subjected to: "Blue Chicago moon / Swings like a blade above the Midwest's heart / Swings like a blade [x2] / Swing that blade above us [x2]" and where the odds are stacked against us: "Show us how close we can get / Show us how close you can get / Show us how fast we can lose it / How bad we're outnumbered". In the following Blue Factory Flame, he wants his bones to be placed in an empty street, saying "To remind me how it used to be", describing a feeling of uselessness and loneliness as the street goes unused and no one walks by. He again references sulphur, similar to Steve Albini's Blues, in the second verse when he sings: "I fly the cross of the blue factory flame / Stitched with heavy sulphur thread / They aren't proud colors but they are true / Colors of my home", saying that the colors of his home are those of sulphur, potentially feeling like he belongs in hell or simply being a reference to stench of the factories. The deep depression of the song is powerfully described by the chorus, a simple repetition of the words "Paralysed by the emptiness" and the final verse, where he says that even after a thousand years, no one will call him home. The record ends with Blue Chigaco Moon, a song in which Molina manages to break out of his shell and in a truly desperate last verse, offers his help with the following words: "But if the blues are your hunter / You will come face to face / That darkness and desolation / And the endless, endless, endless / Endless, endless depression / But you are not helpless / You are not helpless / Try to beat it [x2] / And live through space's loneliness [x2] / You are not helpless [x2] / I'll help you try, try to beat it / I'll help you try, try, try to beat it / I'll help you try, try to beat it [x2]". 

Didn't It Rain is my favorite Songs: Ohia record. It's a record of great sadness, but also of hope, ending with a plea to perhaps the listener not to give up, to realize that despite the darkness there is always something you can do or someone who, like Molina, might offer you his help. It's a record that will always be by your side when you need it, like a helping hand that extends when you feel down and makes you feel understood and maybe even a bit more hopeful. For these reasons I think that everyone should try it at least once.

Magnolia Electric Co. (2003)

And here we are, the final record to be released under the Songs: Ohia name and what a record it is. There is some debate as to whether this is actually a Songs: Ohia record, with Jason Molina himself saying that he considers it to be the debut of Magnolia Electric Co., considering Songs: Ohia to be over with Didn't It Rain. While that may be the case, I still wanted to include it here because his label lists it as a Songs: Ohia release and because I think it's generally considered to be part of the Songs: Ohia canon. Also, I think this record is great, so I wanted to talk about it.  

 

Magnolia Electric Co. is quite different from anything Jason Molina has released before. Taking a more straightforward rock approach with a full band and recording in a studio for the first time, Molina creates a sound that is much less minimalistic compared to his previous output. Still, the record retains the usual melancholic atmosphere Songs: Ohia are known for, despite being more catchy and energetic. One song that demonstrates this is Farewell Transmission, the album's opener and by far the most popular Songs: Ohia song. And it's easy to see why, from the first few seconds the song shows off everything that's great about this record, with wonderfully catchy riffs and Molina singing about a failing relationship: "After tonight if you don't want this to be / A secret out of the past / I'll streak his blood across my beak / Dust my feathers with his ash / I can feel his ghost breathing down my neck", the human condition: "Real truth about it is / No one gets it right / Real truth about it is / We're all supposed to try" and not giving up despite this perceived futility: "I will try and know whatever I try / I will be gone but not forever / I will try and know whatever I try / I will be gone but not forever". This is a theme already found on Didn't It Rain, to not give up and to persevere through whatever the world throws at you, believing that maybe just trying is already good enough even if you know it won't work out in the end: "Real truth is there is ain't no end to the desert I'll cross / I've really known it all along". On I've Been Riding With the Ghost he sings about a break up and trying to work on himself: "While you've been busy crying / About my past mistakes / I've been busy trying to make a change". It is also a song that brings up his addiction problems: "None of them would love me if they thought they might lose me / Unless I made a change", the metaphorical ghost in the song's title symbolising his alcoholism. Just Be Simple expresses a long for a simpler time before the issues of the current day came into Molina's life: "This whole life it's been about / Try and try and try [x2] / To be simple / Just be simple again [x4]". Both The Old Black Hen and Peoria Lunch Box Blues feature guest vocalists, being sung by Lawrence Peters and Scout Niblett respectively. The Old Black Hen also continues the record's nature and animal metaphors with the hen representing Molina's depression: "Old Black Hen, is that you again / Singing the Bad Luck Lullaby / Come right on in, 'cause it's midnight again". John Henry Split My Heart refers back to Farewell Transmission by repeating part of its beautiful outro section: "Long dark blues / Long dark blues / Big star is falling / Long dark blues / Will o' the wisp / Long dark blues", before the record ends with the amazing Hold On Magnolia, my personal favourite of the record. On the song Molina seems to make peace with his inevitable demise saying: "You might be holding the last light I see / Before the dark finally gets a hold of me" and "Hold on Magnolia / I hear that lonesome whistle whine / Hold on Magnolia / I think it's almost time" saying that the train soon will come to take him away. Unlike him, who didn't manage to do so and gave up on himself and the change he promised earlier on in the record, he wants Magnolia to hold on.

Magnolia Electric Co. is in many ways the Songs: Ohia record and even though it's far from my favourite Jason Molina project, I still think it's excellent and if you're looking to get into his discography, there's really no better or easier place to start.

The End

This is it the end of the Songs: Ohia discography and this article. I hope you've enjoyed some of what you've read here and maybe gained some new perspectives on these records, as I certainly did through the endless relistens I did during the writing of these two articles. Maybe I will discuss the rest of the Jason Molina discography at some point, but for now something else.

𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑾𝑩𝑶𝒀...