Fairweather Johnson
| Fairweather Johnson | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 23, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1995 | |||
| Studio | The Site, San Rafael, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 49:20 | |||
| Label | Atlantic 82886-2 | |||
| Producer | Don Gehman | |||
| Hootie & the Blowfish chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fairweather Johnson | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Christgau’s Consumer Guide | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Now | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 5/10 |
Fairweather Johnson is the second studio album by American rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, released on April 23, 1996, through Atlantic Records. Three songs from the album were released as singles: "Old Man & Me", "Tucker's Town", and "Sad Caper". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in May 1996, while their debut, Cracked Rear View, was still in the charts. It has sold 2,361,000 copies in the US as of May 2012.
Despite its initial success, sales tapered off quickly, and the album earned mixed reviews; much of the criticism took aim at the album's dour, alt-rock inspired sound as opposed to the jangly radio-friendly style of Cracked Rear View. It was included in Pitchfork Media's 2010 list of "ten career-killing albums" of the 1990s. Stylus Magazine shared sentiments, including it in their "Non-Definitive Guide to the Follow-Up", saying "really, everyone saw this one coming a mile off. Who was really gonna care about another Hootie album?"