This Perfect World

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This Perfect World
Studio album by Freedy Johnston
Released June 28, 1994
Recorded Various
Genre Alternative
Length 40:11
Label Elektra Records
Producer Butch Vig
Professional reviews
Freedy Johnston chronology
Can You Fly
(1992)		 This Perfect World
(1994)		 Never Home
(1997)
For articles with similar titles, see Perfect World.

This Perfect World is an album released by singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston in 1994.

It is an album steeped in regret and loss. The narrator of "Across the Avenue" is unable to get past the memory of seeing his lover killed in a pedestrian accident. In "Two Lovers Stop," a young couple commit suicide rather than let themselves be ripped away from each other. The title track concerns a dying old man returning to apologize to his estranged daughter for unspecified past misdeeds. Among the other songs, "Evie's Tears" apparently refers to sexual abuse by a priest, and "Dolores" is based on Nabokov's Lolita. Despite the preponderance of dark subject matter, the album has a jaunty feel as Johnston demonstrates an ability to craft winning pop melodies.

Reviews of the album were overflowing with praise, although those same reviewers also generally felt that it didn't quite measure up to his previous album, 1992's Can You Fly.

This Perfect World was produced by Butch Vig, who also played on the album's minor hit, "Bad Reputation." Other notable contributors include cellist Jane Scarpantoni, who performed on two tracks, and Marshall Crenshaw.

[edit] 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. "Dolores"
  10. "Evie's Garden"
  11. "Disappointed Man"
  12. "I Can Hear the Laughs"