Farewell Transmission: The Music Of Jason Molina

cant go wrong with molina's songs

It is both splendid and only right that the late great Jason Molina gets a tribute album from a range of his contemporaries to mark his wider influence and the sheer quality of his recorded output. With 27 covers "Farewell Transmission - The Music of Jason Molina" is full of substance although the quality is sometimes more than variable. Thus a big name band like My Morning Jacket cover the title track but cast it the sort of semi electronic style which have characterises their recent albums. In short its not very good. The Black Swans version of "Two Blue Lights" turns one of Molina's originals into a slow dirge while the the Chicago band Bottomless Pit really don't add anything to epic "The Big Game is Every Night". Indeed listeners may wish to seek out the far better acoustic cover by Centromatics Will Johnson who was one of Jason's greatest friends.Other fare much better and thankfully Johnson does pop up on the second disk of the album with producer Britton Beisenherz performing a heart wrenching version of the great "34 Blues. The Alt Country specialists Waters Liars do a lovely dusty take on "Just be Simple" which inhabits the song and its sparse sentiment. The line "why put a new address/on the same old loneliness" will resonate down the years. Sarah Jaffe's haunting piano introduction on "Alone with the Owl" and her striking vocal make this the "go to" song for the album. This reviewer is also taken with Wooden Wand's acoustic cover of "Don't this look like the Dark" with singer-songwriter James Jackson Toth properly comprehending the powerful rock dynamic of the original. Catherine Irwin successfully turns the drama of "Steve Albini's Blues" into an Appalachian Trail lament and Cory Branan's cover of "Memphis Moon" from the brilliant Sojourner Sessions is suitably desolate and stark. Finally Molina's former bandmates regroup as Memorial Electric Company to perform the unrecorded Molina song "Trouble in Mind (Fade to Blue) and a very good fist they make of it.As with all such tribute albums navigating around the great, the good and the indifferent is the key to enjoyment. Ultimately if this album succeeds in further popularising Molina's music it is a very worthwhile effort. That said if you are approaching the great man's music for the first time a purchased copy of the actual original album "Farewell Transmission" by Magnolia Electric Co would seem the best starting point