Personally I think the album's better than Cracked Rear View. Firstly, the album has more of a country rock sound than their debut, which gives Fairweather Johnson a bit more personality. In particular, the song "Earth Stopped Cold at Dawn," an acoustic ballad featuring a mandolin and vocal harmonies by Nanci Griffith, is definitely one of the album's highlights. The album has a number of memorable pop rock tunes, including "Tucker's Town," "She Crawls Away," "Old Man & Me," and "Honeyscrew." These are probably the best songs on the album. On the downside, the album suffers somewhat from Darius Rucker's oversinging, which is pretty obvious from the moment the album begins. The album is also quite long, with 14 songs and a 49 minute runtime. I think it would have benefited from simply excluding a couple ballads toward the end. Overall, if you can get past the singing Fairweather Johnson might be worth owning for its better songs.
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