PRODUCT DETAILS
With I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, Dean Johnson makes a pact with the listener: He will sing you his truth in the most heartfelt and charming way possible, if you promise to keep an open mind.
I Hope We Can Still Be Friends is essentially an anthology that bridges Johnson’s earliest days as a songwriter with his present-day outlook and abilities. There are songs that have been in his setlists for years, and others that will be new to fans. Each of its 11 tracks contains jocular social commentary or lovingly rendered affairs of the heart. The album’s songs about love and relationships offer another way to interpret its title: as a parting thought to an ex.
Like John Prine or Kris Kristofferson’s country-adjacent sound, devastating humor and economical profundity refracted through a barroom’s haze, the album is filled with easygoing twang, sad characters, universal truths and the absurdity of everyday life. “Carol” recounts the numb consumption and dissipating cultural attention that is besieging America. There’s a search for optimism amid meditations on dying in a plane crash in “Before You Hit the Ground.” Romance that is best forgotten steers “So Much Better” — only Johnson could weave electroconvulsive therapy into a gentle, chuckle-inducing missive on unbearable heartbreak.
I Hope We Can Still Be Friends floats in a liminal plane between timely and timeless, its minimalist instrumentation elevating Johnson’s affecting voice to new heights.
Tracklist:
- Before You Hit The Ground
- Carol
- So Much Better
- Painted Smile
- The Man in the Booth
- Hang Youie
- Death of the Party
- Shake Me
- Perfect Stranger
- Winter Song
- A Long Goodbye
UPC: 648401039610
Label: Saddle Creek
Release Date: 8.22.25
Format: Vinyl Record
SHIPPING & RETURNS
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RETURNS
- Change your mind? No problem: No nonsense 30-day return policy on all domestic orders.
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ABOUT US
For over 10 years, Pale Blue Dot Records has shared and supported your love of vinyl records. We are an independent online record store located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we’re passionate about music, the vinyl community, and doing our part to protect the environment. Learn more about us here.
