Magnolia Electric Co.

Josephine (Secretly Canadian)

By Dana Raidt
Published: July 28th, 2009 | 7:00am

There are all sorts of theories about what direction musicians should go in after experiencing tragedy. Some say a loss should be the catalyst for greatness, and some say pain is cause to give artists a break, or to lower their standards. Jason Molina and his supporting cast of musicians, known together as Magnolia Electric Co., have reacted to loss by staying their course. But it’s not as if the band is pretending nothing ever happened.

Magnolia Electric Co. suffered the death of bass player Evan Farrell in an apartment fire in late 2007, then recorded Josephine with longtime engineer Steve Albini in Chicago the following year. The album is a tribute to Farrell and to the band’s interpretation of how he would want it to sound.

Every song on Josephine is a showcase of the band’s trademark, bittersweet sound, but “Song For Willie,” “The Handing Down,” and “Little Sad Eyes,” as well as the title track, stand out as the stars. The haunting, almost twangy sadness in Molina’s voice is still there, but it’s definitely intensified since 2006’s Fading Trails. Knowing Molina is using Josephine’s story as allegory for Farrell’s untimely death makes it both harder and easier to listen. Albini seems to have stepped back a little further than his typical hands-off approach (his signature sound is still there, just in smaller doses) in order to let the band grieve and pay tribute in its own way.

Josephine is neither a magnum opus nor a halfhearted attempt, but it is engaging, moving, and emotionally honest. Magnolia Electric Co. is doing perhaps doing the healthiest and most cathartic thing possible by continuing to craft songs that are simultaneously sweet and sad. It’s what the band has always done, and probably what Farrell would have wanted.

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