Magnolia Electric Co. takes the long way

Jason Molina doesn't download music. But the Magnolia Electric Co. frontman fears that those who do may only get a part of the picture he's describing in song, since he weaves themes throughout his albums.

"I have always appreciated a complete record more than just individual songs," Molina says in an e-mail interview.

He made that clear recently when his band, which headlines the Middle East Downstairs tonight, released a mammoth box set, "Sojourner." With four discs and a full-length tour DVD, the album was packaged in a wooden box with a medallion and postcards. Most of the songs were previously unreleased, though some were included on last year's "Fading Trails."

"Sojourner" stands in stark contrast to a download culture that has increased song selectivity like never before. In the decade before iTunes boasted more than 3 billion song sales, consumers were forced to purchase albums at the risk of only liking the song they knew from the radio. Soon after the demise of the 7-inch vinyl single in 1989, the major record labels abruptly stopped manufacturing CD singles for retail outlets, pressing consumers to buy full albums.

"Now you've gone from that extreme to another extreme where every song on an album is available a la carte," says Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst at Billboard, referring to the impact of digital music retailers like iTunes. "We've gone from an absolute famine to an absolute feast in what a consumer can buy individually."

But in an age where iPods can hold up to 160 gigabytes, or roughly 304 hours of music, and fans can fill those iPods with just the songs they know and like, is the art of the album being abandoned?

If Molina has his way, the album - and more important, its song cycle - will survive.

"I find myself writing always toward a complete record or song cycle," says Molina, noting that on "Sojourner" he's emphasizing themes of "dislocation, search, and losing the search." "The box set concept allowed me to use songs that I felt were strongly related, and I did not have to purge what otherwise might be key songs from the group simply to fit onto a single record."

Molina has long been known for his sprawling output, and he is one of many artists who are injecting new life into the album concept by testing its limits.

In 2005, alt-country songsmith Ryan Adams, who's rarely mentioned without being tagged "prolific," released a whopping three records (one of which was a double disc) in seven months. Other artists, including Sufjan Stevens, have taken on themed projects that led to massive material. After the release of "Greetings From Michigan" in 2003, Stevens committed to record an album about every US state, and he has since saluted Illinois. Similarly, indie singer-songwriter Paleo will release "The Song Diary" in January, which is literally 365 songs long, one for every day of the year.

The cautious consumer may think that such recordings are too expansive or geared only for diehard fans, Billboard's Mayfield says. But most of the artists releasing these large-volume albums have reasonable sales expectations and fans who may not be looking for just a hit single, he says.

"As an artist, if you aren't looking to go platinum or multiplatinum, then so what? You don't face those same pressures," says Mayfield. "The sensibilities of most of these artists are completely different than ones looking to be the next Mariah Carey or Justin Timberlake."

Now is the time to test the limits of the album, says Grant Alden, cofounder and co-editor of No Depression magazine. This climate, where artists can release unlimited material via the Internet and bypass the wait of the production and distribution of a physical album, is a "period of format instability" much like the transition from vinyl to compact discs, he says. It's the CDs that are the dying breed, making them overproduced and less costly, and in turn making the release of large amounts of music more affordable.

Artists can have what Mayfield calls "the best of both worlds": releasing more CDs than ever and unlimited material online, too. In some ways, this has liberated smaller labels by allowing them to broaden their appeal.

Jonathan Cargill, the project manager for Magnolia's label, Secretly Canadian, signed off on the "Sojourner" box set. He says for an independent label, "commercial radio is not open to us," so Secretly Canadian relies on the support of the fans while trying to lure new ones with free downloads. Eighteen of the box set's 33 tracks were made available online to promote its release.

Still, even with declining CD costs, these projects can be pricey. Cargill says "Sojourner" cost "literally 10 times as much as a regular CD to manufacture" and that turning a profit wasn't even a pipe dream. But Molina earned the privilege: He was the first artist Secretly Canadian signed when the label formed 11 years ago.

With Secretly Canadian's blessing, Molina wasn't forced to cut much on "Sojourner" to get his point across - though he says he left out roughly 30 more songs. Even on his mission to revive the sanctity of the album, he knows his work is far from over.

"I know there will be intense pressure to come up with something interesting and of high quality following 'Sojourner,' " he says. "I welcome that, but nothing puts more pressure on my projects, on the songs, on the searching for meaning in these lyrics than myself. I simply don't want to slow down a second. I have not gotten where I'm going yet."

Glenn Yoder can be reached at gyoder@globe.com.

Correction: Because of an editing error, a story in the Oct. 1 Living/Arts section on the band Magnolia Electric Co. misstated singer-songwriter Ryan Adams's productivity. Adams is renowned for his prolific output.