CD Review

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• Tom Child

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Sojourner is composed of three individually titled collections, one EP, a DVD, a poster and a small medallion that can be carried around by fans as a sort of heartland St. Christopher's medal. Of the four discs, Nashville Moon is the most polished, and the best representation of the full-band country-rock sound Molina first explored on 2003's Magnolia Electric Company. On Shohola, Molina presents the most spare and haunting music in this collection, reminiscent of his Pyramid Electric Co. solo release from 2004. Equally adept at rollicking arrangements and lo-fi, bone-chilling home recordings, Molina remains the constant force throughout the entire package, his emotional, warbling tenor floating above it all like the sound of the ghosts he often writes about. For the uninitiated, Sojourner is as good a place as any to start getting into this music, and for MEC fans, it's a beautiful artifact of an incredibly meaningful band.

—Tom Child