| · More hopelessly romantic antics from the one-time founder of the Modern Lovers.
Hear those minor-chord Spanish guitar melodies with that characteristically-nasal Bostonian chowdah warbled overtop? Sure enough, it’s Jonathan Richman, in much the same charming manner as we’ve heard him countless times over the past 30 years. But with Richman’s unfiltered willingness to share his typically wide-eyed impressions of this noisy, stinky world and life’s rich pageant, he’s one naïf with the savoir-faire to jump-start any closet romantic’s battered ticker.
It’s always been the aching hope in Richman’s music that makes my own heart want to burst and that quality is more than evident here, especially in songs like "The World is Showing its Hand," "My Baby Love Love Loves Me" and a retooled version of the colourful "Vincent Van Gogh." With backing from the equally eccentric Ralph Carney on percussion, woodwinds and brass, Not So Much to be Loved as to Love shows Richman at his most captivating – he loves romance, and he lets it show.
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