#4
January 1 1985
Daniel Johnston
Respect
4.25 out of 5
What the hell is happening? The 80s have taken a sharp turn.
This is an insidious record. Insidious because it’s simple to the point of insipidity. But it’s also haunting. Somewhat powerful. It’s a DIY indie thing that sounds like it was recorded in someone’s bedroom then buried in the backyard and unearthed, the cassette tape wiped and blown and then popped into a handheld recorder and played back at a funeral. And then, as if to prove me right, the song following the sweet “Go” is “Fast Go” which is “Go” if the tape player was stuck on fast forward. Oh no! That tape is gonna get stick, Daniel!!!
Then you research this and you discover that Daniel is, indeed, mentally imbalanced and he's also been weirdly influential and maybe the inventor of the DIY Indie aesthetic that echoes to today. In between hospital institutionalizations he was a strange musical savant that deserves to be heard.
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