Jonathan Richman - Action Packed: The Best of Jonathan Richman
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Artist: Jonathan RichmanEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-02-05
Music Label: Rounder / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- Circle I
- New Kind Of Neighborhood
- Action Packed
- Everyday Clothes
- Fender Stratocaster
- Closer
- Reno
- Since She Started To Ride
- You're Crazy For Taking The Bus
- The Neighbors
- The Girl Stands Up To Me Now
- Cappucino Blues
- When I Say Wife
- She Doesn't Laugh At My Jokes
- Monologue About Bermuda
- Parties In The U.S.A.
- I Was Dancing At The Lesbian Bar
- Una Fuerza Alla (A Higher Power)
- The Heart Of Saturday Night
- Vampire Girl
- City Vs. Country
- You Must Ask The Heart
Free Music Notes for Action Packed: The Best of Jonathan Richman
Free Music Review: Not so much to be loved...
Hit: 5 Stars
Jonathan Richman does much to de-mystify his formative years (but really, were they honestly all that mystic?) in the liner notes to this collection. In a disarmingly straightforward narrative, Jonathan addresses his decision to move away from the edgier, angrier rock of the early Modern Lovers songs towards a form of expression where his statements could more effectively be conveyed at a lower volume level. While the Modern Lovers sessions led to the creation of some of the greatest music I have heard committed to tape, the decision to abandon that sound makes sense in the context of Jonathan's personal growth into a less awkward (but still highly unique) adult. Not surprisingly, the lower volume level and happier mood did/does suit him very well indeed.
The liner notes display Jonathan as really just a man, one who enjoys making music because it's fun. His songs carry that same sense of true enjoyment and almost childlike wonder and excitement with his own creations. It's that simple. He is very true to his unique vision and his body of work is unmistakably his own.
I can't evaluate this collection on the basis of whether it truly is a "best-of" beacuse I only have one solo album of Jonathan's, "I, Jonathan." I just know that each and every song is fun and insightful, with a fresh perspective on the little things in life. Like "Everyday Clothes," where Jonathan makes a simple point: he thinks his woman looks just fine in her ordinary outfits, in fact he likes it best when she doesn't dress up because she doesn't need to in order to look good to him. Many of the songs play out like elaborate jokes with little punch lines here and there. Others are wide-eyed tributes to something or another, often bursting with enthusiasm. No longer does Jonathan point fingers (as he points out in his liner notes, he lost his desire to do that when his life took a turn for the better), he just makes clever observations. Ultimately he comes off like a brainy rock n roll purist with the soul of a jokester and a large heart.
Jonathan, by the way, is also a very nice guy. I had the opportunity to meet him once and he took time to introduce himself and have a conversation with me (we talked about a cover he did, "Stop Your Sobbing" by the Kinks, my favorite cover ever). He was the same person off stage as on stage - a guy with a deep passion for music making and life. That is a huge testament to the honesty of his body of work.
Action Packed: The Best of Jonathan Richman Poster
When the mid-'70s Jonathan Richman traded the "snotty," Velvet Underground-tinged sensibility of the original Modern Loves for a strummed, twangy electric style and an even lighter percussion sound, he didn't give up his convictions. The 22 cuts here, drawn from Rounder releases from the '80s and '90s, are as joyful and unironic as anything cut during those years. He explicitly acknowledges his roots in the innocent '60s on "Parties in the U.S.A.," both lyrically and in its borrowed "Hang On Sloopy" riff, and he reaches back to the Collins Kids' rockabilly nugget for this collection's title track. Richman celebrates urban delights ("I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar," "Cappuccino Bar," "Vampire Girl"), but these tunes find him digging ranches ("Circle I") and island jaunts (an expansion of "Bermuda" includes a pointed jab at the old Lovers' "She Cracked"). Openheartedly, he even cut a whole album in Nashville (well, Springfield, Missouri) style and a long-player in Spanish. Finally, "She Doesn't Laugh at My Jokes" sounds like the product of a much less damaged Brian Wilson circa The Beach Boys Love You. --Rickey WrightAlternative Rock Music CDs
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