Magnolia Electric Co.: Hard To Love A Man (20th anniversary edition, 3 bonus tracks) [SECRETLY CANADIAN]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary edition brings the EP to vinyl for the first time, with a printed inner sleeve and three extra recordings. Steve Albini recorded the title track and a cover of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" at Electrical Audio in Chicago.

This edition

• 20th anniversary edition
• 3 bonus tracks
• Printed inner sleeve
• Hand-etched runouts
• Lyrics included

About the album

Jason Molina spent years recording as Songs: Ohia before the band he'd built around him became Magnolia Electric Co., a full-blooded country rock outfit with room for his high, plaintive tenor. Hard to Love a Man was the new band's first EP, four Molina originals and a cover, and it shows exactly where he was heading: road songs, steady rhythm and guitars turned up just enough. Molina's songs carry a plain-spoken weight that the full band makes even stronger.

"Bowery," "Doing Something Wrong" and "31 Seasons in the Minor Leagues" were cut at Echo Park in Bloomington, Indiana, with engineer Paul Mahern, during a five-day trip home. The bonus tracks dig deeper: a remastered demo of "31 Seasons" under its earlier title "Tonight I'm So Down," a full-band demo of "Lonesome Valley" from the same sessions, and "One Thin Dime" from the Black Ram sessions with David Lowery in Richmond, Virginia.

Molina's catalogue has drawn a devoted following over the years, and Secretly Canadian has looked after it with real care. Twenty years on, these songs finally have a format that crackles, which is frankly what they were asking for all along.

Also at Kops: more Magnolia Electric Co. on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Secretly Canadian (cat# SC513).