The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
Play The Modern Lovers
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MOG Editorial Review
On their debut album, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers embodied rock 'n' roll cool like few others before or after them. Employing simple chords that were arguably a precursor to the punk to come, Richman delivers brainy, detached lyrics with vocals that can only be described as half-singing on tracks like "Roadrunner." While plenty of songs are full of non sequiturs and sarcastic turns of phrase, Richman and company still deliver plenty of emotional heft on "Hospital," the closest thing the album has to a ballad. Elsewhere, songs like "Old World" remind us that even the icons of New York cool have humble origins, and it's proof that the Modern Lovers aren't ashamed of where they came from, even if they sound as rock 'n' roll as ever in the process.
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AMG Review of Modern Lovers [Castle]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music GuideCompiled of demos the band recorded with John Cale in 1973, The Modern Lovers is one of the great proto-punk albums of all time, capturing an angst-ridden adolescent geekiness which is married to a stripped-down, minimalistic rock & roll derived from the art punk of the Velvet Underground. While the sound is in debt to the primal three-chord pounding of early Velvet Underground, the attitude of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers is a million miles away from Lou Reed's jaded urban nightmares. As he says in the classic two-chord anthem "Roadrunner," Richman is in love with the modern world and rock & roll. He's still a teenager at heart, which means he's not only in love with girls he can't have, but also radios, suburbs, and fast food, and it also means he'll crack jokes like "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole...not like you." "Pablo Picasso" is the classic sneer, but "She Cracked" and "I'm Straight" are just as nasty, made all the more edgy by the Modern Lovers' amateurish, minimalist drive. But beneath his adolescent posturing, Richman is also nakedly emotional, pleading for a lover on "Someone I Care About" and "Girl Friend," or romanticizing the future on "Dignified and Old." That combination of musical simplicity, driving rock & roll, and gawky emotional confessions makes The Modern Lovers one of the most startling proto-punk records -- it strips rock & roll to its core and establishes the rock tradition of the geeky, awkward social outcast venting his frustrations. More importantly, the music is just as raw and exciting now as when it was recorded in 1973, or when it was belatedly released in 1976.
 "The Modern Lovers")
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- Release Date 2011
- Label Sanctuary Records Fontana
- Genre Rock
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