ARTiST: Freedy Johnston
ALBUM: My Favorite Waste of Time
BiTRATE: 173kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Singing Magnet
GENRE: Rock
SiZE: 45.65 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 35min 05sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-11-06
STORE DATE: 2008-02-12
Track List:
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01. You're My Favorite Waste of 2:23
Time
02. I Want You Bad 2:35
03. Do You Know The Way to San 2:40
Jose?
04. The Sad Cafe 5:00
05. I've Been Waiting 3:36
06. Listen to What the Man Said 2:59
07. Let 'em In 4:30
08. Shadow of a Double (A Complex 4:21
Kid)
09. Bus Stop 3:04
10. Night and Day 3:57
Release Notes:
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Let's face it: Discs of cover tunes have had the stench of death about them
lately, primarily a desperate cry from heritage acts starving for airplay.
Poetic, story-oriented singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston, author of the
certified classics Can You Fly and This Perfect World, sidesteps such muck.
Firstly, he has another CD of original gems in the offing next year. And on My
Favorite Waste of Time (available at freedyjohnston.com), he's carefully chosen
tracks by some of his heroes (Bacharach, McCartney, Porter), with results
sunnier than Johnston's own dark, tricky songs: beautifully sung, unfussy, and
fun, all done out of love, not desperation. Johnston drains the excess sugar
from "Do You Know the Way to San JosΘ," adding a mocking pedal steel and turning
it into a bittersweet cowboy song. Matthew Sweet's "I've Been Waiting" gets a
band-like horn section, underscoring the original's warm spirits: When its aging
protagonist tells his young girlfriend "You can wear my clothes," try not to
sigh. The Hollies' "Bus Stop" is tricked out with an electric sitar straight
from the swinging '60s (Ed Pettersen's witty production gets high marks
throughout). Cole Porter's "Night and Day" is a summer breeze of a samba,
Johnston's quavering tenor as vulnerable as a teenage heart. Could Time have
used one less McCartney song? Yepùa little whimsy goes a long way. But with
definitive versions of Marshall Crenshaw's title tune and NRBQ's super-horny "I
Want You Bad," surely that's just quibbling. Now bring on those originals.