Current mood:	content
Current music:	Songs:Ohia - The Magnolia Electric Company Demos - Whip-Poor-Will

Chicks.
A song by my girlfriend's band is getting played on Triple J. Watch out for "The Subterraneans" by Jane vs World.

Paul McCartney - "Jenny Wren"
(track 3, 3:46, 3.45mb)
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, 2005.

Improbably, considering Paul McCartney's generally abysmal solo output, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is actually worth listening to. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, who will always get cred for his production of both Kid A and OK Computer. While there's no postmodern technology angst or bleeps and bloops on Chaos and Creation, what Godrich did get right was that he wasn't scared to tell Paul McCartney if he thought the songs were crap. There must be a certain amount of self-confidence you need to be able to tell Paul McCartney that a song is crap. This is the man that wrote "Yesterday". The man who wrote "Hey Jude". The man who wrote "Let It Be". He's also the man who largely wrote a bunch of crap in the 1970s and 1980s, and whose talents and craft are often squandered in sentimentality and songs that don't really mean anything.

Godrich reined in the sentimentality and meaninglessness. It sounds like an album made by a real person, rather than shiny studio fluff. Jenny Wren is along the lines of Blackbird - same kind of fingerpicked guitar and feel. Like so many girls, Jenny Wren could sing/ But a broken heart took her song away...lyrically a narrative about a delicate girl who withdrew from the cruelties of the world, what makes 'Jenny Wren' work (apart from McCartney's innate melodic ability and the appropriate production) is McCartney singing outside of his usual range, projecting his voice in a way he doesn't usually. His voice (an awesome and versatile instrument, as anyone who's heard "Helter Skelter" would understand) sounds like it's on the verge of breaking. The effect is to suggest that he actually cares about what he's singing.

Songs Ohia - "The Old Black Hen (demo)"
(track 3, 4:56, 4.56mb)
The Magnolia Electric Company Demos, 2003.

There's never any doubt in my mind that Jason Molina cares about what he's singing. Magnolia Electric Co., Songs:Ohia's last album, was stunning in its way. It didn't have the jagged intimacy of the earlier Songs:Ohia stuff. And it sounded slightly too much like Neil Young with Crazy Horse. But it packed a definite punch. That'd be the backing band that genuinely rocked. That'd be the consistently damn good songs with good lyrics, and a bunch of great riffs.

I never quite liked the middle of the record though - the start and end pack a punch, but the middle loses the plot a little - I don't think the guest vocals on "The Old Black Hen" and "Peoria Lunchbox Blues" quite work. It's the same as Belle & Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child - when the other members who aren't Stuart or Steve have lead vocals the album really drags.

With the first editions of Magnolia Electric Co. came a bonus CD full of early demo versions of the songs on Magnolia Electric Co.. I much prefer the demo of "The Old Black Hen". The singer on the album version sings with country inflections, with a Nashville accent that sounds like unadulterated cliche to me. The texture of the song is different on the demo version; it's just Molina and a guitar, and some tape hiss.

Is there something special about hearing the person who writes a song play it? I think there is, where the song is personal. For all the prettiness of The Byrds' Mr Tambourine Man, I prefer to hear Bob Dylan sing it. Maybe I'm hung up on the idea of authenticity ("Death of the Author" and all that), but there's something about knowing what the song means emotionally that means you phrase things right - you put that rhythm there, emphasise this word here, slur that word - it's the little things like that, which make something sound more convincing to me.

And yeah - there's a commitment to the song in Molina's voice on this demo, that's just not there on the album. Enjoy.

tim.