Songs Ohia - The Lioness

  by Cara Ross

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label: Secretly Canadian
Format: CD

intro

This is the fourth full length album from Chicago's Songs:Ohia and has been recorded with the help of friends from Arab Strap and Appendix Out in Glasgow, Scotland, which may give you some inkling as

This is the fourth full length album from Chicago's Songs:Ohia and has been recorded with the help of friends from Arab Strap and Appendix Out in Glasgow, Scotland, which may give you some inkling as to the lo-fi, slow-core nature of Songs:Ohia's music. Songwriter Jason Molina crafts, and continues to craft with this release, beautiful heart-wrenching songs about love and relationships with an almost folk/country bent. The song arrangements themselves are simple, and the addition of a keyboard lilting through a number of the tracks lends to the music 's depth. Molina's voice itself sometimes sounds as though it is coming from somewhere in the distance, or as if has been recorded somewhere in the past, lending the songs an aching quality, that remind you of every powerless situation you have ever been in. The fact that Songs:Ohia's music has a stripped-down quality to it is what makes it so special. The emotion that is packed even in the most basic of lyrics is what is compelling here, getting along just fine without any arbitrary production junk weighing it down. There's a definite theme also running through the album revolving around women as feline: tigress, lioness, hunting, hurting, thrashing. Comparisons to Will Oldham abound, as well as other Chicago slow-core bands like Rex, who Songs:Ohia keeps with company with and who have helped out on previous albums. "I watched you hold the sun in your arms while he bled to death / He grew so pale next to you / The world is so pale next to you" . Definitely one to cry yourself to sleep with !

Track Listing:-