Her Mystery not of High Heels

Superbly crafted mature pop by the master inventor himself. This qualifies as a “local” CD really, recorded in SF (“Jonathan” lives in Grass Valley, spends a lot of time in The City). Musicians of note include local Ralph Carney and longtime drummer/sidekick Tucsonan Tom Larkins. The tracks that incorporate all these musicians provide a nice departure from his more typical sparse swingy sugar pop, nay, the gut string guit lends a latin feel at times, eventually surrendering to full on Latin pop sung in Spanish (last 4 tracks). Not claiming to be a “Jonathan-head”, there may be more than one remake of classic material on this that I am not aware of. To be blunt: his stuff usually grates on me because of the minimal “cute” factor, however the inclusion of the full band reminds me why I love this guy and how great the Modern Lovers were and how great it is that Richman is releasing gems like this.

1) upbeat full band, great melodies
2) slower swingy w/ “string arrangement” slight feel, near cheese
3) more typical Richman feel: minimal swingy backbeat, guit –drums-vocs
4) minimal but heavier swing pop beat, super cool guitar lead
5) slower cute ballad
6) absolutely georgeous brief interlude, gut stringed guitar/brushed drums/upright bass
7) remake of older classic, full band typical Richman feel
8) loungy latin smarmy love feel
9) pretty latin gut guitar very brief interlude
10) triplet waltz love song gem, guit-drums-vocs
11) the latin hints fall away to reveal una cancion en espanol, music still pop, the Spanish lyrics bring out the latin feel this entire cd has hinted at til now
12) another song en espanol, more Mexican feel than pop
13) Mexican pop feel, merengue
14) excellent swingy latin, like being in a cheesy Mexican restaurant in Tucson in 1968 (por ejemplo, La Fuente).