iSound

Jonathan Richman first established his music career as the excitable and talented frontman of his former band, The Modern Lovers, penning the refreshing, if rather unprolific LP "Roadrunner!". Yet the material he produced as a solo artist has consistently proved more confident and of a sustained quality, with an applaudable discography spanning nearly three decades. Despite the evidently broad genres of music he has succussfully experimented with, Richman's primary influence, The Velvet Underground, is apparent. Born in America in 1951 and surrounded by the international and radical revolutions in the sixties' art worlds, allusions to Camus and bilingual vocalisation mirrors subtely Richman's awareness of the expressionism around him, shaping his music, poetry and light philosophy. Topics coinciding with the existentialist literary movement in mainland Europe, particularly France, can happily be found nestling amongst his lyrical solidarity, his observations of the...