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Daniel Johnston's frayed emotional and mental state made for some of the most compelling music of the 1980s. Specifically, his self-made, self-released cassettes from that period sounded like holes seared into his soul. Often lost in all that's been written about him, though, is the fact that he's quite the pop songwriter, which is apparent once again on his new, long-awaited album, Rejected Unknown. The album continues in the direction toward which he veered in the 1990s, using a full band to flesh out his heart-on-the-sleeve vignettes and employing production values far removed from the early tapes Johnston recorded on his boom box. What might be lost in intimacy and "authenticity" is made up in emotional directness and the music's pretty sadness ("pretty" as in "beautiful," and "pretty sad," as in "pretty fucking sad"). Songs like "Impossible Love" and "Love Forever" might move along with a blissful bounce, but the lyrics reveal an open wound ("There's nowhere to go/ There's nothing to show/ There's nothing to know/ It's all been said/ Our love is dead/ Our love is dead").
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