Jonathan Richman’s fourth solo effort, I, Jonathan, came at a pretty momentous time in American music. In 1992, glam metal was still throwing punches that failed to connect as they gasped for relevancy, meanwhile Nirvana’s Nevermind had just about taken over the world and launched a thousand clones armed with distortion pedals and flannel shirts. And Richman, clearly not phased, ignored the current trends and continued to do what he’d done since the mid-1970s – turn in an album of unpretentious lo-fi jangle pop that was just as satisfying as it was quirky.
Twenty-eight years later I, Jonathan, originally out on Rounder Records, is being released on vinyl for the first time via Craft Recordings. The album never really dented the music charts at the time, but Richman was never the type of artist that appealed to the masses, Rather he followed his own muse and the fans, small but devoted, eagerly followed. I, Jonathan, coming less than a year after the quieter, an admittedly mediocre live/studio hybrid Having A Party With Jonathan Richman, is easily one of the strongest, most beloved albums from his post-Modern Lovers career. Songs like “I Was Dancing In A Lesbian Bar,” a track only Richman could have written, “Parties In The U.S.A.” with its lackadaisical call outs to The Beach Boys and the dreamy “That Summer Feeling,” the 10 track album was always destined to be a classic and this re-release is bound to help it find a whole new collection of fans. It was the record that found him expanding his sound, bringing back a full band, but far from being a bloated effort, he kept the arrangements satisfyingly sparse, putting his distinctive delivery and imaginative lyrics front and center.
At this point in his career – having put out a couple of landmark records with the Modern Lovers; reassembled a new band under the moniker Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers and then forged a solo track record – Richman could have phoned it in and still sold a comfortable amount of records. Instead he turned in one of the best records of his career and now an entirely new generation can discover him through this re-release.
