Week 2: Didn't It Rain

4. SONGS: OHIA – Didn’t It Rain
Secretly Canadian, 2002

I could write at length about why any album by Jason Molina is probably better than anyone else’s best album but I’ll try to shove my fanboy instincts in the closet just this once. This record’s magic is undeniable and immediate; from the clean, sparse opening chords of the title track to the very last closing echoes of “Blue Chicago Moon,” this is one tuff goddamn ghost of an album. “When I die/Put my bones in an empty street/To remind me how it used to be,” croons Molina in “Blue Factory Flame,” (the most On The Beachian of the songs here but also the most haunting) and holy Christ, it’s soul-wrenching. J-Mo’s done his share of brilliant songwriting, but most of his albums are riddled with at least one or two (usually well-intentioned) missteps. Not here, boss. Sure, Didn’t It Rain is imperfect, but that’s what makes it human; unlike those hucksters that fill records with auto-tune and studio effects to hide the fact they couldn’t write or sing their way out of a paper sack, Molina knows the only way to properly chronicle the foibles ‘n joy of being a human being is to do it RAW. He’s on a different tip now with the Magnolia stuff, but he’s never been better than he is here, and that’s the damn truth.

DOWNLOAD: Songs: Ohia - "Two Blue Lights"