What Comes After The Blues

Magnola Electric Co. is the new nine-piece band from Songs: Ohia frontman Jason Molina. He has taken the countrified vision of his former outfit and expanded it onto a widescreen canvas over the course of these eight tracks. It’s less lo-fi and more upfront than his previous outings, with the end result sounding like Neil Young bumping into Bonnie Prince Billy and The Band in a rural woodshed with wonderful acoustics. ‘The Dark Don’t Hide It’ is near-perfect country rock, with a chorus so infectious you’d need shots not to love it, while the brilliant ‘Leave The City’ is a mini-road movie all of its own. Molina shares vocal duties throughout with Jennie Benford, whose funereal ‘The Night Shift Lullaby’ would give Emmylou a run for her money. Add in the heart-breaking ‘Northstar Blues’ and the Parsons-ish ‘I Can Not Have Seen The Light’ and you have a perfect Sunday morning hangover album.