Consumer Guide Album

Freedy Johnston: Back on the Road to You [Forty Below, 2022]
Unnoticed by anyone but connoisseurs and an all too compact fanbase, the 61-year-old Johnston continues to craft subtly melodic, insufficiently catchy tunes at a rate of just a few a year and match these tunes with lyrics that know the ins and outs of a love life that's imbued with thoughtful kindness but has trouble keeping on. Many of these are touching, a few compelling. In one of my favorites, he raises himself from a bartender's sleep to watch his newish sweetie take public transport to an office he's never seen and likely never will. In another, he puts a nephew and/or niece to bed after explaining how life and death work. Thus I hope the woman he thinks he glimpses in "Trick of the Light" didn't die and am sorry to report that he leaves that possibility open. B+