Ric Ocasek steps in to produce a lush-sounding record for
Jonathan Richman, employing quirky keyboards, percussive effects and background vocalists. "Nineteen in Naples" is one of his typical, naive travelogues: "When I was 19, I went across the pond and I found myself in the demimonde." But his charming nasal voice seems to have all but disappeared; it's been replaced with a sort of arty croon, as on the title cut and the dour "Affection." Yet it suits the song treatments, which sound similar to mid-period
Talking Heads (!). Still, on "The Night Is Still Young," the "old"
Jonathan Richman makes an appearance with one of his trademark shuffles. ~ Denise Sullivan