Dean Johnson - I Hope We Can Still Be Friends - VINYL LP

I Hope We Can Still Be Friends DEAN JOHNSON (BLUE VINYL) With I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, Dean Johnson makes a pact with the listener He will sing you his truth in the most heartfelt and charming way possible, if you promise to keep an open mind. I Hope We Can Still Be Friends is essentially an anthology that bridges Johnson's earliest days as a songwriter with his present-day outlook and abilities. There are songs that have been in his setlists for years, and others that will be new to fans. Each of it's 11 tracks contains jocular social commentary or lovingly rendered affairs of the heart. The album's songs about love and relationships offer another way to interpret it's title as a parting thought to an ex. Like John Prine or Kris Kristofferson's country-adjacent sound, devastating humor and economical profundity refracted through a barroom's haze, the album is filled with easygoing twang, sad characters, universal truths and the absurdity of everyday life. InchCarolInch recounts the numb consumption and dissipating cultural attention that is besieging America. There's a search for optimism amid meditations on dying in a plane crash in InchBefore You Hit the Ground.Inch Romance that is best forgotten steers InchSo Much BetterInch - only Johnson could weave electroconvulsive therapy into a gentle, chuckle-inducing missive on unbearable heartbreak. I Hope We Can Still Be Friends floats in a liminal plane between timely and timeless, it's minimalist instrumentation elevating Johnson's affecting voice to new heights. Album Tracks 1. Before You Hit the Ground 2. Carol 3. So Much Better 4. Painted Smile 5. The Man in the Booth 6. Hang Youie 7. Death of the Party 8. Shake Me 9. Perfect Stranger 10. Winter Song 11. A Long Goodbye