Album Details

• Artist: Molina And Johnson
• Album: Molina And Johnson
• Label: Secretly Canadian
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2010-01-06

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You should recognize these names and if you do, you may have already gotten ahold of this collaboration between two very established and respected roots singer/songwriters. Will Johnson is the principle songwriter behind Centro-matic. Jason Molina was the brains behind Songs: Ohia and more recently, Magnolia Electric Co. Throw them together for 10 days in Will's Texas home studio and this is what the result is, a nice collection of songs not too far from what you might expect with a mashup of the three bands.

I found the best songs on Molina and Johnson was where they shared the vocals. It is very nifty and humbling to have a contemporary giving you backup vocals but on tracks like "Almost Let You In" you get them conducting a wonderful duet, sharing the key vocal duties. This is where the pure magic happens.

You'd think with a project like this you might not get premium songs but with me being a big Centro-matic fan, I found plenty to sink my teeth into, with regards to Johnson's songwriting. As well, I walked away with a stronger appreciation of Jason Molina.

The songs are generally sparse and barren but if you know either of these two musicians you will come to expect that. The best thing about this collaboration was that it was completely unexpected for me. I was welcome to have this disc land on my desk. It's one that I know damn well is going to get better with age and exposure.

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