Back in your life

"The third album from Jonathan Richman's second, more whimsical iteration of the Modern Lovers bore some similarities to the two that preceded it, but like everything Richman touches, it had interesting and puzzling idiosyncrasies of its own. A fondness for bygone musical eras shows up in the form of a doo wop send-up "(She's Gonna) Respect Me," in covers of sock hop and beach party tunes, and in originals directly informed by the earliest days of rock & roll. These moments of Happy Days-style nostalgia are curiously interspersed with original songs that go in decidedly different directions ... Despite its occasionally jumbled flow, the album includes some of the more re-playable songs from this era of Richman's evolution. Album-opener "Abdul and Cleopatra" is catchy, intoxicating, and just silly enough not to be overbearing for listeners who might be turned off by the more saccharine emotional nakedness of "My Love Is a Flower (Just Beginning to Bloom)" or the cartoon voices of "I'm Nature's Mosquito"".

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