Jonathan Richman: I'm So Confused : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Jonathan Richman perfected the geek-punk sound in the Seventies with the Modern Lovers, warbling garage-rock classics like "Roadrunner" and "Girl Friend" with an Everykid intensity that spawned today's deluge of sensitive indie troubadours. But while you're making out that thank-you note, give a listen to I'm So Confused.

Jojo became an unlikely scuzz-cinema icon this summer as the conscience of There's Something About Mary, and he has had the good manners to celebrate with his strongest album in years. Producer Ric Ocasek brings a little sonic candy-o to flesh out the songs (dig those New Wave synths), and since Richman needs help from his supporting players as much as the next rock & roll eccentric, the lively production keeps the beat moving while Richman plays a mean skiffle guitar and broods over lost love: "The night is still young/And the bed is still cold/And I'm tired of hanging around all alone." After a decade of drab, interchangeable records, it's a shock to hear Richman face up to adult loneliness with so much soul – in "Hello From Cupid," "The Night Is Still Young" and "I Can't Find My Best Friend," he really sounds like a forty-seven-year-old guy sleeping by himself and hating it. I'm So Confused delivers an emotional punch that nobody expected again from Jonathan Richman – probably not even Jonathan himself.