£54.995
FREE Shipping

Sojourner

Sojourner

RRP: £109.99
Price: £54.995
£54.995 FREE Shipping

In stock

We accept the following payment methods

Description

Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Yes, Molina’s death due to alcoholism on a chilly Indianapolis March evening in 2013 felt like a tragedy at the time, earning thoughtful requiems from The New York Times (even if they did misspell the band name), the Chicago Reader and Pitchfork. Maybe we assumed there would always be an endless spigot of incredibly gifted Americana musicians, with the unbelievable torrent of prolific talent and creativity of the first 13 years of the 21st century. Maybe we were too busy being digested by the digital, with the ascendancy of vaporwave and the release of Oneohtrix Point Never’s career-defining R Plus Seven, or just being slowly subsumed by poptimism. Maybe Molina’s death was just an early tragedy in a decade defined by tragedies.

The four LPs that comprise The Sojourner Box Set are from four distinct recording sessions that Magnolia Electric Co. undertook following the release of their debut studio album, What Comes After The Blues. From these, sophomore album Fading Trails was born. But the four sessions, in full, chart the celestial map of Magnolia Electric Co.: its constellations and shooting stars, its Americana stompers and lean folk dirges. And, of course, the center of gravity that is Jason Molina’s mournful, incomparable voice. The Box Set is the accumulated work of thirteen musicians, five locations, four recording engineers and one songwriter, with the four LPs that comprise the set taken from four distinct recording sessions that Magnolia Electric Co. undertook following the release of their debut studio album, What Comes After the Blues. Sojourner is the moon to the sun of the rest of 2000s Americana. If Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown represent hard-drinking good times, Magnolia Electric Co. would be the sound of drinking behind closed curtains, alone with the shakes. If Fleet Foxes symbolized a kind of hale, wholesome, ruddy-cheeked pastoralism, Jason Molina would be a wilderness prophet, pale and ergot-poisoned, mad with visions and isolation. If Bon Iver gave voice to a palatable form of isolation and obsession, Molina’s music would be all the ugly, painful truths of heartbreak. It’s a stunning document from a decade full of them, which makes it that much more incredible that it’s essentially an afterthought. Goods that are faulty or sent in error must be returned to Crash Records Limited, 35 The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 6PU within 7 working days of the item being received by the customer.

Follow Us

With LP covers drawn from original box illustrations and with the original box’s poster included, this LP edition of The Sojourner Box Set delivers for the most ambitious and robust Magnolia Electric Co. release to date. The four albums of Sojourner would make just as suitable accompaniment for dozens more lonely Canadian highway movies, but if they never line up with film, happily they will evoke whatever desolate landscapes your mind can conjure. Nashville Moon is the most assured piece here, what would and could have been the next big Magnolia project all by itself. It’s hard to figure how it wasn’t, except that nearly half of its songs had previously been released in different forms: “North Star” (not to be confused with “North Star Blues”) and “Don’t This Look Like the Dark” from the limited edition live Trials & Errors, “Bowery” from the Hard to Love a Man EP, “Hammer Down” from What Comes After the Blues, and “Down the Wrong Road Both Ways” from the CD accompaniment to a book of love poems by young poets. And with the exception of the rousing version of “Hammer Down”, the re-worked songs all suffer slightly at first by comparison to their previously released renditions, as Nashville Moon does away with the band’s penchant for vast, billowing reverb and wide open spaces. Both singer and band sound reined in, subdued, their knives dulled and their dogs defanged. The wooden box is really unnecessary - maybe looks great in the record store. But in everyday life completely unnecessary and impractical. Those who buy records to listen to them, are here more pleased with the (commendably) anti-static inner sleeves. That the DVD is missing is incomprehensible to me and for those who do not have the CD box probably also annoying. In view of not even 2 hours of playing time over 4 LPs, there would have been room for one or the other goodie for the high price we all paid here. The folding poster, however, hardly anyone will hang up. Your computer may be infected with malware or spyware that makes automated requests to our server and causes problems. Returning from a long time out-of-print and for the first time on vinyl, Secretly Canadian today announce Sojourner Box Set by Magnolia Electric Co., re-presented via a 4LP collection out April 7.

Sojourner is a four-disc box set of outtakes from the recording sessions for 2006’s Fading Trails. It’s essentially three albums and an EP, which makes it that much more unbelievable that there’s not a bunk note in the batch. Many musicians spend their entire careers trying to write one song as solid as one of Molina’s afterthoughts.For the first time on vinyl and returning from a long time out-of-print, Secretly Canadian is proud to re-present The Sojourner Box Set from Magnolia Electric Co.

From those recording sessions, the band’s second album Fading Trails was born. But the four sessions, in full, chart the celestial map of Magnolia Electric Co.: its constellations and shooting stars, its Americana stompers and lean folk dirges. And, of course the center of gravity that is Jason Molina’s mournful, incomparable voice. The scene in Bloomington was tight, with a lot of house shows, the camaraderie of a college town; Ben Swanson, and his three partners in Secretly Canadian were very much a part of the scene as was National Book Award winning graphic author Nate Powell. Groth shares that “it seemed to be a very magical at the time.” Soon, Magnolia Electric Co formed as Molina changed the name of the band from Songs: Ohia on what seemed a whim. Swanson explains the history of Jason’s seeming to not be nailed down, “when he moved to Oberlin, he was able to re-invent himself—people knew he was in a metal band in high school, but Oberlin gave him the opportunity to find himself…when he got (to) Bloomington, he was writing songs so fast, especially after “Axxess & Ace”. He knew when he hit his stride…he was writing a lot of stuff, record after record so we decided to just do the Sojourner in one fell swoop. He just wanted to start the next chapter he was working.” Sojourner is Magnolia Electric Co.'s 2007 box-set release, comprising: three full-length albums, one four-song EP, one documentary movie on DVD called The Road Becomes What You Leave; a celestial map and a medallion; all within a wooden box. The band's 2006 album, Fading Trails, was compiled from the four recording sessions included in their entirety on Sojourner.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

Delivery & Returns

Fruugo

Address: UK
All products: Visit Fruugo Shop