Jason Molina's The Magnolia Electric Co. - Best Neil Young album since Ragged Glory

From +++ neumu [ the drama you've been craving ] on Jason Molina's latest by Michael Goldberg:

"Jason Molina, who records albums under the name Songs: Ohia, wants to do the right thing. On his latest album, The Magnolia Electric Co. (Secretly Canadian), with the help of a full electric backing band, Molina sings about the mistakes he's made and how "something's gotta change."

Molina's new album just might be the best Neil Young album since Ragged Glory, and I hope you don't take that the wrong way. When you focus in on the details - the actual sound of Molina's affecting but plainspoken Ohio Everyman voice and frank lyrics, the band's country-rock sound, the tone of the guitars, the way the musicians work to make this music - none of it is really anything like the details of Young's work. Yet the feel is very much early-'70s Neil Young - After the Gold Rush/ Harvest/ Time Fades Away/ Tonight's the Night - period Neil Young.

Imagine a sweet, country-flavored lap-steel guitar riff, joined by a rhythm section dealing a version of Young's "Heart of Gold". And then Molina sings, "You'll never hear me talk about/ One day getting' out/ Why put a new address/ On the same old loneliness/ Everybody knows where that is...."

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