Jonathan Richman - Modern Lovers 88 CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

capable of irony, the album's title might seem tongue in cheek: the simple chord changes, bare-bones instrumentation and unsophisticated production are as un-up-to-date as any of Richman's works since 1976's hard-edged Modern Lovers. (That dark, prescient master-piece was released after that configuration of the Modern Lovers – including future Talking Head Jerry Harrison and David Robinson, later of the Cars – had disbanded.)

Despite constant changes in the group's personnel and popular musical taste, Richman has stubbornly held on to both the band's name and a fun-loving-naïf outlook, for better and worse. One song on 88, "When Harpo Played His Harp," ranks with his best, with sweet harmonies on the chorus and straightforwardly poignant verses: "When Harpo played his harp/It was a dream, it was/Well, if someone else can do it/How come nobody does?" Others verge on the trivial: the solipsistic "I Have Come Out to Play" and "Circle I," about a store's great produce, wear thin fast.

But Richman's passions are honest and winning on the Chuck Berry-style raveup "Dancin' Late at Night" and the bopping "Gail Loves Me." And his recent relocation to California provides a wellspring of inspiration ("New Kind of Neighborhood" and "California Desert Party," featuring Richman's own inimitable goose-honk sax playing).

Even with the padding of the instrumental "African Lady" (which sounds suspiciously like "New Kind of Neighborhood") and a hummed rendition of "The Theme from Moulin Rouge," 88 clocks in at less than thirty minutes. But so did Richman's best postpunk album, Sire's now-deleted 1983 Jonathan Sings! Since then his indie-label releases (1985's Rockin and Romance and 1986's It's Time For ...) have been spotty, but always with shining moments: the choruses still ooh and ahh and wangity-dangity, the guitars still go twang-a-wang. What more fun could you ask for? (RS 521)

DAVID HANDELMAN