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.
![Title: 1999 [Super Deluxe Edition]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0603497850068_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg)
![Title: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield [Warner Bros.]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0093624550020_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
![Title: Marshall Crenshaw [1982]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0075992367325_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)