Background
More Songs of Pain was Daniel Johnston’s final album recorded in his parents’ basement in West Virginia. During the sessions, Johnston was 21-22 and would have been studying for his Senior year at Kent State University in East Liverpool, Ohio, if he had not been taken out of education by his parents out of fear of him failing to graduate. The album is placed between The What of Whom (August 1982) and Yip/Jump Music (April 1983).
The album introduces the recurring character of Joe, a stand-in for Johnston, ‘an average guy trying to defeat his demons.’ Joe would feature heavily in the lyrics to Hi, How Are You, and would appear on the cover of Retired Boxer.
As well as having an improved sound quality than ‘Songs of Pain‘, ‘More’ also showcases Johnston becoming less self referential in his lyrics, with only ‘More Dead Than Alive‘ referring back to ‘Monkey in a Zoo’.
Legacy
In 2003, Jason MacNeil writing for PopMatters described Songs of Pain and More Songs of Pain as “Overall easy on the ears,” but said that Johnston’s “whiney vocals” could be “challenging at times”. He also compared the album to later acts such as They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds.
MacNeil also considers “You Put My Love out the Door” as a highlight of the album, calling it “a melodic and somber mid-tempo tune where Johnston pours his heart out yet again about an old flame”, but criticized “Never Get To Heaven” as “ragged and average”. In 2006, Kimya Dawson covered “Follow That Dream” for the Daniel Johnston tribute album I Killed The Monster. In 2010, Douglas Wolk writing for Pitchfork described More Songs of Pain as “a accomplished if less bracing take on a lot of the same themes […as Songs of Pain]”.
When Billboard published their “12 essential Daniel Johnston tracks” list in 2019, “Phantom of My Own Opera” was included. NBC News described More Songs of Pain and Johnston’s other 1983 albums as having “oblique, yet touching lyrics”, as well as “oddly contagious melodies”.