Jonathan Sings!

Jonathan Sings!
Studio album by
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Released1983
Recorded1983
GenreRock and roll
Length34:10
LabelSire/Warner Bros/Blue Horizon
ProducerPeter Bernstein
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers chronology
The Original Modern Lovers
(1981)		 Jonathan Sings!
(1983)		 Rockin' and Romance
(1985)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarHalf star
Robert ChristgauA
SoundsStarStarStarStarStar

Jonathan Sings! is the fourth album by American rock band Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, released in 1983 by Sire Records.

Reception

Robert Palmer of The New York Times praised the album, writing that "the unironic, clear-sighted innocence of Mr. Richman's best lyrics and his frail singing could be stratagems to disarm his audience...Where Mr. Richman's previous songs barely got him into his teens, his latest lyrics have taken something like an adult perspective. 'That Summer Feeling' warns against nostalgia in rhymes worthy of Ogden Nash, and in 'The Neighbors' he turns out to be married. The tunes on Jonathan Sings! are as understated - as anti-rock - as Mr. Richman recent albums, but all of a sudden he seems to have grown up."

Robert Christgau gave the album an "A" rating and placed it at #9 on his Dean's List for the best albums of the year. Decades later, he praised the album again, writing that "the small joys that populate 1983’s willfully minor Jonathan Sings!, with 'That Summer Feeling' merely the standout, aspire to a quiet spiritual sustenance with few parallels in pop music or anywhere else."

The album placed number 8 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll of 1984. NME also ranked it number 19 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1984.

Track listing

All songs written by Jonathan Richman.

Side one
  1. "That Summer Feeling" – 3:56
  2. "This Kind of Music" – 2:11
  3. "The Neighbors" – 3:20
  4. "Somebody to Hold Me" – 3:20
  5. "Those Conga Drums" – 3:05
Side two
  1. "Stop This Car" – 1:49
  2. "Not Yet Three" – 2:42
  3. "Give Paris One More Chance" – 2:55
  4. "You're the One for Me" – 3:19
  5. "When I'm Walking" – 3:03
1993 CD bonus track
  2. "The Tag Game" – 4:30

Note: Richman revisited "That Summer Feeling" on 1992's I, Jonathan, with a somewhat longer version of the song.

Personnel

The Modern Lovers

Technical

References

  1. ↑ "Jonathan Sings Review by Jason Ankeny". AllMusic. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (November 11, 1983). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ Black, Bill (June 30, 1984). "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Jonathan Sings". Sounds. p. 40.
  4. ↑ Palmer, Robert (October 5, 1983). "THE POP LIFE". The New York Times. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
  5. ↑ Christgau, Robert (February 28, 1984). "Pazz & Jop 1983: Dean's List". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
  6. ↑ Christgau, Robert (November 5, 2021). "Faster Miles an Hour Who Knows Where". robertchristgau.substack.com. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
  7. ↑ "The 1983 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 28, 1984. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Albums and Tracks of the Year". NME. 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2018.