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Do you think singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston has loneliness
on his mind? After all, he opens this latest album with [a song] titled
"Lonely Penny", and then follows that up with "Don't
Fall In Love With A Lonely Girl". Might Penny be this lonely
girl he has in mind? As usual, he asks more questions than he answers.
A lot of these songs lyrically connect - likely intentionally - in
the same way the first two do. The album's title track, for instance,
is followed by "Venus is Her Name", which speaks about rain
in its very first verse.
Johnston has the sort of voice that begs for and earns empathy. He
never ever comes off authoritative. Instead, he's a little like a
nerdy guy who, when he sings, expresses himself much like a poet would.
These recordings leave much space in the tracks for Johnston's unassuming,
yet altogether unique, voice to come through. At its loudest, there
is the aggressive jangle rock of "Don't Fall In Love With A Lonely
Girl". But things don't get too aggressive or loud most of the
way through.
Johnston doesn't get too shocking lyrically, either. He might mention
the devil himself in "The Devil Raises His Own", but there's
not a chance in hell that this song would ever be performed at Ozzfest.
Hey, it even has a jazzy trumpet solo on it, for heaven's sake!
Like a sickly neighbor with a heart of gold, Freedy Johnston is nearly
impossible not to love. Visit him, if you like, but expect it always
to be raining in his unfair city.
-Dan MacIntosh
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