Songs: Ohia – Didn’t it Rain (2001)

I divide my life into two parts; life before I heard songs: ohia and after I heard songs: ohia. I’ve never listened to anyone like I listen to Jason Molina. When he sings I listen and I listen carefully. Songs: Ohia is the moniker under which Jason Molina has released the best death defying acoustic/folk-songs this side of the grave. Molina comes from under a dead Ohio sky and he knows smouldering, overwhelming darkness. If you know that too he is the best person to have there with you. It’s good to have Jason by your side. He travels down with you but always with the most sincere intentions of getting you out of there. Along the way when you cannot see he will describe every single shade of black, and he will lead you through it but never force you. Jason Molina makes a lot endurable.

Talking about Songs: Ohia’s record “Didn’t It Rain” almost feels like an invasion of privacy. I can’t help but feel like I’m inviting you to a sightseeing tour of my most personal side. I’m not even sure I want you to hear this record. I’m not sure I would like to share it with you, because if you listen to it you will know almost everything about me.

I have never ever heard a more beautiful song than “Didn’t it Rain”, the title song of the album. This song is it for me, it’s the one. Nothing else humbles me the way it does.

I almost missed out on this record because I first listened to it on my computer, insulting it by not having any speakers. This is not only a silly anecdote but an illustrative example of how a record this delicate, this sincere, should be handled with care. It deserves your time. It’s the same with people, it’s often the quiet ones that have the best things to say.

When that initiating chord of the title song “Didn’t it Rain” slams down as an exhausted sigh of mixed relief and passive aggressiveness it almost always makes my eyes burn. The melody reveals the song’s mood from the start. The lyrical content of this song is a good example of Molina’s ability to depict the bleaker side of life.

Jason Molina is a master of the spectral simplicity, managing to fill up an entire space with his beautiful voice. He has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. I can become completely obsessed with small things in his songs, like the way he phrases a word or the way he slides from one note to another like he almost didn’t make it there.

You can feel the agony in his voice. He makes you feel it in your stomach with his repetive verses and the way he pounds at words like he never wants to sing them again. There is no attempt to sweep anything under carpet. Molina embraces and cradles the gloom, slowly singing it to sleep. “Didn’t it rain” is a good introduction to the shadowy world of songs:ohia. It’s a warm and intimate record, as most simplistic records are. The reason this record stands out from previous songs:ohia-records in my opinion is that it is the most cohesive. Although it’s a dark affair it’s a very positive and soothing record. Molina shows that there’s a way out of whatever darkness you might have entered into; “step by step”.

5/5

~ by Tina on August 8, 2008.