Latest releases reviewed

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC COMPANY
Fading Trails
Secretly Canadian
***
You could never accuse Jason Molina of not taking life seriously enough. Here's a man who is happiest when he frowns - or, at least it seems that way. The Magnolia Electric Company is his latest vehicle and this collection is a follow-up to What Comes After the Blues, last year's gloomy but strking collection. That took some time to warm to, and this album, with its shades of Richard Thompson and Neil Young, is no different. He likes his guitar-driven band loose, that kind of shambolic sound so favoured by Young, and the songs typically start off slow and build to a climax. When it works, as on Lonesome Valley and the title track, the sound is a perfect partner for his lost and lonely voice. www.magnoliaelectricco.com

SPENCER DICKINSON
The Man Who Lives for Love
Yep Roc Records
***
"We got that freak element. We got the groovy hate vibe. We got weird." Jon Spencer, he of Blues Explosion fame, is explaining the background to this late '90s collaborative effort he made with Luther and Cody Dickinson under the direction of their father, the legendary Jim Dickinson, at the latter's Zebra Ranch studio in Mississippi. Originally only available in Japan but now released here with seven extra tracks, The Man Who Lives for Love is aptly described by the label as "a torrid mess of trouble, twang, and twisted blues". The Dickinsons, drivers of blues band The North Mississippi All-Stars, are past masters of scary voodoo riffs, while Spencer clearly enters into the spirit of the occasion. And when it's good, as on True and That's a Drag, it is very good, but there's a lot that should have been left on the cutting room floor. www.yeproc.com