After the austere pressure cooker that was 2000’s Ghost Tropic, the 2002 follow-up, Didn’t It Rain, was likely to sound like an elaborate, expansive collection. Songs:Ohia’s musical line-up switches from release to release with only singer-songwriter Jason Molina a guaranteed presence. For Didn’t It Rain, he throws Jim Krewson and Jennie Benford of the Pinetops in for mandolin and backing vocals, adding a slightly more bucolic feeling to these claustrophobic anthems. The songs, however, do open up beyond the hypnotic two-chord thrillers of the past. “Steve Albini’s Blues” percolates with the expected cathartic tension, “Ring the Bell” with its sawing cello closes in on an ominous folk-rock, while “Cross the Road, Molina” sounds like something written for a stalker film. “Blue Factory Flame” and “Blue Chicago Moon” resonate with the city’s gritty edge, even as Molina’s voice evokes the image of a parched, desperate, depression-era farmer clinging to his land. It’s this weirdness, this alternate reality that puts Molina’s music on its own singular level.