In his thirty-nine short years on this Earth, Jason Molina was unbelievably prolific. Between his output as Songs: Ohia and the transition into Magnolia Electric Co., as well as his solo work, Molina released sixteen albums, eight EPs, and a large volume of singles.

Hailing from small-town Ohio, Molina started out playing bass with a string of heavy metal bands, before landing on his own Songs; Ohia moniker, and collaborating with a conveyor belt of fellow singers and musicians as he carved out his own lo-fi, alt-country folk sound. Eventually, that sound would morph into Magnolia Electric Co. and evolve blues, rock and even metal-inspired elements that took Molina’s output to a wider audience.

After relocating to London and ceasing touring with his band, Molina sought treatment for health problems and ostensibly retreated from public life. The full extent of his ills and his issues with alcohol did not fully emerge until after his tragic death in 2013.

Eight Gates is the third second posthumous Molina release after 2018’s Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions, a collection of recordings and outtakes from what was perhaps his definitive album as Songs: Ohia, The Lioness, and the live solo album Live At La Chapelle, which was released through Secretly Canadian earlier this year.

This new nine-song collection is a very different beast though. It is a haunting, devastatingly visceral experience of mostly unfinished acoustic songs interwoven with Molina’s own sense of the mythical. Opening track Whisper Away is a mournful start, The Mission’s End is soft country guitar and Molina’s voice at its most soulful, while Thistle Blue is probably the most complete track here, an affecting number that wouldn’t be out of place on The Lioness.

Permeating the record are recordings Molina made of the calls of the parakeets who would visit his garden and which, legend has it, are descended from a pair of birds Jimi Hendrix released in central London in the 1960s. Equally as symbolic is the voice that begins She Says: “The perfect take is just as long as the person singing is still alive.”

As the last recordings he made before his passing, it’s only natural that there are all sorts of elements like this on show in Eight Gates. But it’s also a collection that reminds you what a supremely talented singer and songwriter Molina was.

Eight Gates track list:

1. Whisper Away

2. Shadow Answers The Wall

3. The Mission’s End

4. Old Worry

5. She Says

6. Fire On The Rail

7. Be Told The Truth

8. Thistle Blue

9. The Crossroad + The Emptiness

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.