The following is a Designated Cheerleader piece by @KindaLikeShaft for the Best Album of 1991 tournament. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you follow the link to vote in the tournament. Thanks!

Jonathan Richman is punk as fuck.  His first band, The Modern Lovers, recorded one of the seminal proto-punk albums of all time.  They were the first emo band, singing about emotions, like wanting a girlfriend or being in love with a girl having health problems.  They sang about desks and secretaries, and were also the first straight edge band, singing a song about guy who smoked his way through life.

When told that his band would be the standard bearer for the east coast punk scene, Jonathan did what any self respecting punk would do:  he made his band unplug all their instruments and started playing softer.  Then he had them play calypso.  

Influenced by a residency at a hotel in Bermuda, Jonathan basically destroyed the band by making them play softer and softer, looking for more melodic songs that sounded simple, but hit on complex subjects with genuine humor.  I guess I tend to like a whimsical song, and it's a skill to make a song that children can like, but adults get too.  It's like being The Simpsons.

Having a Party with Jonathan Richman is full of these smart, simple, adult songs, including one where he explains the time in Bermuda.  He sings about liking women that have a sense of self, he sings about coffee, he sings about his wife not getting his sense of humor, and how people don't even try to dance anymore.  He sings about the word "wife" sounding like a mortgage or a laundry bag, but how if you call someone your "lover" you make people around you gag.  He sings about having relationships just for fun.

There is a genre of novelists who try to use the minimum of words to give the maximum story.  It takes time and artistry to do that.  And that's what Jonathan Richman does on this record.  Maximum conveyance of meaning through simple lyrics and simple music.  

This album is giddy.  It's playful.  It's carefree and exuberant.  It's wistful, gentle, light, cheerful, whimsical, and quirky.  It smells like summer rain.  Come splash with me...

– @KindaLikeShaft