Details
Track Listing
1. Bad Reputation
2. Evie's Tears
3. Can't Sink This Town
4. This Perfect World
5. Cold Again
6. Two Lovers Stop
7. Across the Avenue
8. Gone Like the Water
9. Delores
10. Evie's Garden
11. Disappointed Man
12. I Can Hear the Laughs
Album Notes
Personnel: Freedy Johnston (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Dave Schramm (guitar, lap steel guitar, 6-string bass); Kevin Salem, Marc Ribot, Mark Spencer (guitar); Marshall Crenshaw (12-string guitar); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Doug Erikson (piano); John Yates, Graham Maby (bass); Frank Vilardi (drums); Butch Vig (drums, percussion); Mary Gaines (background vocals).
Recorded at Dreamland, West Hurley, New York and House Of Music, West Orange, New Jersey from December 1993 to February 1994.
THIS PERFECT WORLD is not only Johnston's finest moment, but one of the best albums of its kind. When it comes to roots-tinged, alt-rock-identified singer-songwriter releases, THIS PERFECT WORLD is the motherlode. Marrying a perfectly realized power-pop sensibility to skilled, literary writing chops, Johnston turns out cut after cut of melodically infectious, intellectually involving, emotionally affecting pop-rock.
He zeroes in on the details of a situation without revealing much of the plot, so the listener is left to connect the dots but nevertheless moved by the emotional resonance of Johnston's Raymond Carver-like wordcraft. The title tune is a perfect example; the narrator may be a wife-murderer returning to visit his daughter, or a haunted widower calling on an old friend. Either way, the track shines with melodic grace and dramatic power. The icing on the cake is that even if one ignores the words, THIS PERFECT WORLD is still a classic folk-rock/power-pop offering bursting at the seams with flawless, shimmering hooks.
Industry Reviews
Included in Mojo's 25 Best Albums of 1994 - ...repeated plays drive the Beatlish tunes permanently into your brain and you're totally at the mercy of its gentle charm.
Mojo (01/01/1995)
Ranked #13 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
Village Voice (02/28/1995)
...In its lyrical sophistication and melodic invention, THIS PERFECT WORLD is nearly perfect...the temptation to plumb the depths with Johnston's characters is almost irresistible...
Musician (08/01/1994)
Highly Recommended - ...THIS PERFECT WORLD rocks in spite of its trappings, pouring diminished, subversive fervor into formulas that feel as exhausted as the song's characters...
Spin (08/01/1994)
4 Stars - Excellent - ...Nobody sounds like Freedy Johnston. He's an American original...for the most part, Johnston seems incapable of writing a tune that doesn't stick...
Rolling Stone (07/14/1994)
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