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Music
Freedy Johnston's My Favorite Waste of Time
A covers album with a little more warmth than, say, Cat Power's
by Peter Gerstenzang
December 4th, 2007 12:00 AM
Freedy Johnston
My Favorite Waste of Time
(self-released)
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 José," 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? Yep—a 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.
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wordsofpower on Mon Feb 18, 2008, 08:47, says:
Either Freedy Johnston is or he isn't one of America's finest songwriters. Freedy's downward spiral continues with this useless excercise in laziness. You are too kind dear reviewer. Where are his songs? Where is something as thrilling as "You Get Me Lost" or as desperate as "Trying to Tell You I Don't Know". "Bad Reputation' is a rock solid classic. And remember, Christgau called "Can You Fly" the perfect album. Great artists should be regularly covering Freedy Johnston tunes not the other way around. File this record and others like it under W for "waste of time". At least for me, leave out the "favorite" part.
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