Following quickly from the live
Trials & Errors
is
What Comes After the Blues
, the studio debut of
Jason Molina
's
Magnolia Electric Co
. And what comes after that comparatively boisterous live set is a record of quiet fire, fueled by an electric/acoustic guitar dynamic and the determined waver in
Molina
's vocals, which have strengthened considerably since
Songs: Ohia
. Strengthened yes, but
hasn't lost that melancholy tinge. On
What Comes After
he's a man resigned to what he must do, yet unable to remove from his voice a wavering mix of fear, anger, and regret. "Now the world was empty on the day when they made it," he sings over the ramble of opener
"Dark Don't Hide It."
"And heaven needed some place to throw all the sh*t." But as down as he is on human darkness, the track softens at the touch of harmonies from
Jennie Benford
of
Jim & Jennie & the Pinetops
. (
Benford
takes the lead for the weary
folk
lament
"Night Shift Lullaby."
)
"Leave the City"
is his goodbye to Chicago, his adopted home and, with
Steve Albini
, where the album was recorded. A winnowing trumpet joins its shuffling
country-rock
rhythm, and
Neil Young
"Heart of Gold"
drifts in the margins of
's bittersweet self-examination. The full band really makes its mark on
"Hard to Love a Man,"
where Wurlitzer, violin, and the bass' deliberate plodding put a haunting weight on
Palace
-ish vocal. And the violin returns on
"Northstar Blues"
to color its slight acoustic strums with something more than just the
blues
. Because the answer to
' titular suggestion seems to be a blend of ruminating melodrama, comfortable instrumentation, and threads of American musical tradition from creaky
and mournful
all the way to sedate indie balladry and the steady hand of classic
rock
radio. ~ Johnny Loftus