I may have blogged about this album before, but I've never Felt Thoroughly Plastered about it, so here goes:
Freedy Johnston literally sold his family farm in the midwest to move to the big bad NYC and follow his musical aspirations. After a couple of well-reviewed albums on indie labels, he signed to Elektra, got a modest budget, and made this classic album in 1994. I was working at a record store in Jackson, MS, and a couple of my co-workers hipped me to this album. It pretty much didnt' leave the player for 7 or 8 months.
You'll probably recognize 'Bad Reputation' as it and the title track were used in the movie 'Kingpin' (helping to give that slapstick kitchen-sink comedy its dark undertone). All of the songs play out like little Raymond Carver character studies set to some of the most insanely catchy melodies ever. Check out 'Evie's Tears' and its follow-up 'Evie's Garden' and you'll see what I mean. The story tells so much, but leaves so much for you to imagine. Butch Vig of Nirvana, Garbage, and Young Fresh Fellows fame showed that as a producer he could handle clean emotive pop as well as he handled big rawk. Graham Maby from Joe Jackson's classic lineup plays bass and Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Lounge Lizards, Elvis Costello) turns in his usual clean and quirky guitar stylings.
Johnston's commercial fortunes have waned. I'm not sure what he's up to now. The last album I have is 'Right Between the Promises', a good, if not great, release from a few years ago on another indie label. Still, this album holds up as one of the highlights of the 90s for me.
2 comments:
I dug this one out this weekend. I haven't listened to it in a long time. I never realized Vig produced it. You know, cuz it only says it right there on the sleeve. Marshall Crenshaw also plays on that one. He's evidently got the obligatory covers record coming out sometime on '08.
Wow! Thank you, Dave.
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