Art is far too important to be left to the artists.
The absence of other notable and still-unreleased songs of the Lovers early period is both odd and annoying, but the three new ones here are enough for the serious Lover fan. But he did, and the world is happier for it. But they're familiar in the same way that a condensed dense drone through the baement floor is familiar, a subsonic twitching that plays Richman's vocal inexperience as expertly as it nails the band's auteur enthusiasm. This is not a pleasant listening experience, but like fidgeting with a loose tooth, it's a rewarding one. One of the biggest problems plaguing Jonathan Richman's recordings has been his tendency to avoid his aggressive side and concentrate on too-cute little boy warblings.