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**Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album**
★★★★☆

In the pantheon of outsider art, few figures loom as large or as heartbreakingly human as Daniel Johnston. His 1983 cassette release "Hi, How Are You" stands as perhaps the most influential lo-fi recording ever made – a testament to the power of raw emotion over technical prowess, and a blueprint for every bedroom recording artist who followed.

By 1983, Johnston had already established himself as Austin's most beloved musical enigma. The West Virginia transplant had been busking on the streets, handing out homemade cassettes, and performing at local coffee shops with nothing but his Casio keyboard and a voice that seemed to channel pure vulnerability. His previous tapes, including "Songs of Pain" and "Don't Be Scared," had begun circulating through underground networks, but it was "Hi, How Are You" that would cement his legend.

Recorded in his parents' basement on a simple boom box, the album captures Johnston at his most creatively fertile and emotionally turbulent. His bipolar disorder, which would later overshadow much of his career, manifests here not as debilitating illness but as a kind of artistic superpower – allowing him to access depths of feeling that most songwriters spend lifetimes trying to reach.

The musical style defies easy categorization, though "outsider folk" comes closest. Johnston's Casio MT-30 provides tinny, childlike accompaniment to songs that veer between nursery rhyme simplicity and profound existential dread. His voice, nasal and quavering, sounds perpetually on the verge of breaking – which, given the emotional weight of these songs, feels entirely appropriate.

"Walking the Cow" opens the album with its now-iconic bass line and Johnston's matter-of-fact delivery of surreal lyrics about bovine perambulation. It's simultaneously the most accessible and most bewildering track, setting the tone for an album that operates by dream logic rather than conventional songcraft. The tune became something of an underground anthem, later covered by everyone from Yo La Tengo to TV on the Radio.

"Sorry Entertainer" might be Johnston's greatest achievement – a devastating self-portrait of an artist who sees himself as fundamentally broken yet compelled to perform. Over a simple chord progression, Johnston confesses his inadequacies with such naked honesty that it becomes transcendent. It's the sound of someone turning their deepest insecurities into art, and it's absolutely devastating.

The album's centerpiece, "Hi, How Are You," is a three-minute masterclass in emotional complexity. What begins as a simple greeting becomes an exploration of loneliness, connection, and the masks we wear in social situations. Johnston's delivery is conversational yet haunted, as if he's addressing a friend he hasn't seen in years – or perhaps speaking to himself in a mirror.

"I Live My Broken Dreams" showcases Johnston's gift for melody, with a chord progression that wouldn't sound out of place on a Beatles album if not for the bedroom recording aesthetic. The song's title perfectly encapsulates Johnston's worldview – finding beauty in brokenness, making art from the pieces of shattered expectations.

The album's rough edges aren't flaws but features. The tape hiss, the occasional stumble, the moments where Johnston's voice cracks – these imperfections create an intimacy that no professional studio could capture. You feel like you're eavesdropping on someone's private moments of creation, witnessing the birth of songs in real-time.

"Hi, How Are You" would go on to influence generations of indie artists, from Beck to Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum. Kurt Cobain famously wore a Daniel Johnston t-shirt on MTV, introducing Johnston to a mainstream audience that was simultaneously fascinated and confused by his uncompromising vision. The album's cover art – Johnston's own drawing of a frog-like creature named Jeremiah – became an icon of underground culture, eventually adorning a mural in Austin that serves as a pilgrimage site for music fans.

Today, "Hi, How Are You" stands as a monument to the power of authenticity in an increasingly manufactured musical landscape. In an era of Auto-Tune and digital perfection, Johnston's trembling voice and off-kilter keyboard remind us that the most powerful music often comes from the most broken places. The album's influence can be heard in everyone from Mac DeMarco to Car Seat Headrest, artists who understand that vulnerability isn't weakness –