{"id":23912,"date":"2022-10-17T05:30:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T09:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23912"},"modified":"2025-04-19T11:40:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T15:40:53","slug":"album-reviews-four-from-jonathan-richman-and-the-modern-lovers-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/17\/album-reviews-four-from-jonathan-richman-and-the-modern-lovers-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Reviews: Four from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Certain artists seem to get a kind of free pass from critics. In the cases that come to mind, these artists created something really, really, really<\/i> special and important, and then arguably never again came close to creating works that even approached the significance of their breakthrough. I\u2019m as guilty as anyone of falling into this trap, and \u2013 if I\u2019m being honest with myself and my readers \u2013 it helps explain my continued championing of Brian Wilson, Alex Chilton and a select few others. Yes, their later work was\/is worthy of investigation. No, it isn\u2019t Big Star\u2019s 3<\/i>rd<\/i><\/sup> or SMiLE<\/i>, or even Bach\u2019s Bottom<\/i> or the soundtrack of I Just Wasn\u2019t Made for These Times<\/i>. It just ain\u2019t, and perhaps it\u2019s too much to expect otherwise.<\/p>\n

But I trust you get my point here, even if you don\u2019t completely agree. Past glories shouldn\u2019t blind us to considering subsequent work on its own merits, not clouded in the intoxicating exhaust of something great they did a long time ago. Which leads me to a tidy stack of recent reissues by Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers.<\/p>\n

Recorded in 1971 and 1972 (but not heard until \u201876), The Modern Lovers<\/i> is an undisputed classic. It deserves mention up there with releases by, well, Brian Wilson and Alex Chilton. And the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and other artists who were ahead of their time, and who suffered commercial failure while exerting incalculable influence. Jonathan Richman was but a mere teenager when he wrote and recorded \u201cRoadrunner,\u201d \u201cShe Cracked\u201d and several other tunes.<\/p>\n

The thing is, he would never again make music that explored that album\u2019s particular creative landscape. By the time that The Modern Lovers<\/i> received its belated release, he had long since moved on. To what, novitiates might ask. Well, to some truly winsome music that had little to do with the proto-whatever styles on that legendary debut. Still working with producer Matthew King Kaufman, he made some interesting records, but they\u2019re\u2026different<\/i>. All — but not the great debut — have received reissue in 2022 from Omnivore Recordings. Here\u2019s a look at each.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers<\/b><\/i> (1976)
\nThis one rocks, a little. Richman draws upon the influences of rockabilly and early rock, and sings in that inimitable voice of his. The playing Is top-notch, but the sense of childlike wonder that informs songs like \u201cHey There Little Insect\u201d and \u201cHere Come the Martian Martians\u201d can induce a bit of uncomfortable squirming on the part of the listener. The cover of Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cBack in the U.S.A.\u201d is oddly understated, with a kind of skiffle vibe, and it hints at the future. It\u2019s tough to know what exactly to make of a solo voice-and-acoustic reading of \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d that closes the record.<\/p>\n

I cover three more in the next installment, right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Certain artists seem to get a kind of free pass from critics. In the cases that come to mind, these artists created something really, really, really special and important, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,64,65],"tags":[4958,1622,4959],"class_list":["post-23912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-reissue","category-review","tag-jonathan-richman","tag-omnivore-recordings","tag-the-modern-lovers","cat-51-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23912"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29312,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23912\/revisions\/29312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}