Jason Molina – “The Mission’s End”
Jason Molina, the beloved songwriter behind the long-running indie rock projects Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., battled alcoholism for his entire career, and he died of organ failure in 2013, when he was just 39. In his lifetime, Molina was a truly prolific songwriter, and he left behind troves of unreleased material when he died. Later this summer, Secretly Canadian will release Eight Gates, a whole album that Molina recorded and shelved. We’ve already posted the song “Shadow Answers The Wall.” Today, Secretly Canadian has shared another track from the LP.
Molina moved to London in 2007, and he recorded Eight Gates over there a year later, putting it together while recovering from a poisonous spider bite that had him laid up in the hospital. While “Shadow Answers The Wall” is a full-band song, “The Mission’s End,” the second track we’ve heard from the album, is just Molina alone with an acoustic guitar. It’s a heavy one.
Singing over a sparse guitar figure, Molina sings in mythic terms about trembling flames and magi. “We’re all equal along this path,” Molina sings tremulously. Check it out below.
Eight Gates is out 8/7 on Secretly Canadian. Pre-order it here.