Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine

Records borne of personal tragedy are an odd beast: tinged with pain, they’ll often contain heartbreakingly honest song-writing, but can become stifling over the course of an entire sorrow-filled album. Josephine is  pitched by Magnolia Electric Co.’s Jason Molina as a concept album in commemoration of bassist Evan Ferrell, who died in an apartment fire in 2007, and the results are undeniably beautiful. But at some stage during its forty-six minutes the pervasive sadness is likely to stop haunting the listener and start to emotionally tire them instead, and despite its many successes - doo-wop waltz The Rock of Ages and Gram Parsons-esque ballad Whip-poor-will in particular - the funereal pace makes it tough not to crave more variety. But perhaps criticising a tribute to a departed friend for being too solemn is unfair; at its heart, this is achingly gorgeous country with only the most minor of faults.