The Lioness

While a sense of doom followed Jason Molina from his first recordings as Songs: Ohia until his final days with Magnolia Electric Co. and as a solo act, certain albums capture his drama and poetry better than others. Molina’s music appears to be something you either intuitively understand or you don’t. His fans connect to the deliberately dramatic repetitions, the slow burn of pain that becomes more pronounced with each go-round. Here, “The Black Crow” hits upon the line “I’m getting weaker I’m getting thin," and the intensity becomes undeniable. Recorded by Andrew Miller at Chem 19 Studios in Glasgow with Alasdair Roberts, Geof Comings, Aidan Moffat, and David Gow of Arab Strap, The Lioness deals with the twists and tortures of failing love and the human frustration that takes its toll. A church organ dominates “Being in Love,” a dark Molina love song where, for more than five minutes, we learn that "We are proof that the heart is a risky fuel to burn.” Even the reassuring “Baby Take a Look” (where Molina sings “You are the one true thing in a world full of untrue things”) sounds not like a celebration but a cautionary tale.