Freedy Johnston

Freedy Johnston is the poet laureate of beautiful folk with a dark heart. But when it comes to these early demos (recorded from 1986-92), a loopier, more playful Johnston than we're used to tosses off beauties like "The Enchanted Car," "I Do, I Do" and "Love Songs About Girls" as if he were dropping hot dogs on the BBQ.

John Lennon gets to unveil a throwaway like "Oh Yoko" as the stroke it is. But can an unknown risk such a thing? Not if he craves respect. As it turns out, there are several such strokes among these demos, all preceding or circa 1989's overworked The Trouble Tree and 1992's fine-tuned Can You Fly. Johnston would never put the multi-tracked talkathon "Happy Birthday" or the folkie rave-up "Friend in the City" on a real album, but both achieve a fun his real albums avoid with no sacrifice in ambivalence or bite. And then there are great lost outtakes like "I Do, I Do," in which the excited suitor awaiting the delivery of his mail-order bride croons, "I'm the guy you're belonging to"--not, for instance, "I'm the guy you're longing for." Get somebody else to splice on the guitar-bass-drums and that would be a Can You Fly bonus track to remember. (Grade - A-)