This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Some guys never change. Thankfully — and somewhat amazingly — Jonathan Richman is not one of them.
On his latest disc Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love, the eternally naive troubadour finally sounds as if he’s — get this — maturing. Sure, he still strums that acoustic guitar and warbles with all the earnest simplicity of a camp counsellor at a cookout. And he still writes songs about painters and Sunday afternoons. But during the course of this 15-track set, the 53-year-old singer-songwriter also explores more grownup and weighty topics like Mumia Abu-Jamal and mortality. You could say it’s not so much a shock as it is a pleasant surprise.
