Daniel Johnston, Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album - (Cassetta) Not On Label (Daniel Johnston Self-Released), 1983

Daniel Johnston comes from a Christian family Methodist, which sends a strong link with the Bible and spirituality in general. His great passions of youth, however, are the comics of Captain America and the music of the Beatles: "At 19 I wanted to be the Beatles - he says - I was upset when I realized that I could not sing." Yet starts singing the same, and writing songs for amateur movies he himself created. So two years later sees the light his first job: "Songs of Pain" (1981), recorded with an organ and a cassette from $ 59, however, reveals an extraordinary talent, combining freshness and dramatic without lapsing into pathos, as if a child of six years, we tell his story. Considered by some as a precursor of the lo-fi, the disc comes from her great emotional trauma: unrequited love toward Laurie, who marries a businessman acquaintance.

Rating: *****