Jonathan Richman: Back in Your Life : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On Back in Your Life, Jonathan Richman continues to explore and refine his notion of the children's song as rock. Though the new album is no less intense than last year's Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers, this time the melodies are sharper and catchier: i.e., more like good old-fashioned rock & roll.

As if in anticipation of a truly rollicking time, Richman's quavery voice is more unsteady than ever. And his soaring spirits are justified: Back in Your Life includes the high point of Jonathan Richman's synthesis so far, "Party in the Woods Tonight." Strumming an acoustic guitar and warbling earnestly, Richman details the rock celebration being planned by most of the animal kingdom: "We'll invite the loons/'Cause they remember all the tunes...."

Like the best writers of children's entertainment, Richman is never condescending to his audience. "Party in the Woods" rocks like crazy over a thumping guitar riff, while the singer, confident of his listeners' capacity for brutal honesty, doesn't pull any punches. Of the bears invited, he notes: "They brought their favorite records/Too bad they stink."

All of us nearly grown-up rock fans can figure out the range of virtues Richman is promoting on Back in Your Life: patience, passion, affection (the title of one whole song), faithfulness, nuttiness and the capacity to rock & roll. We can appreciate the way the Modern Lovers add a tight, tinny rhythm section and intricate harmonies that are deft enough to avoid crashing into their leader's swooping alto. We can even realize how carefully sustained the metaphor of "I'm Nature's Mosquito" is, and the way Richman questions love relationships with brave, dogged directness in "(She's Gonna) Respect Me."

My sister-in-law, Sarah, age ten, says she wants a copy of Back in Your Life to play for her friends. She's confident that Jonathan Richman will supplant both John Travolta and Leif Garrett as objects of youthful adoration in no time at all. I don't want to sound like an old fogy, but Sarah restores my faith in the younger generation.