Running just under half an hour, the album features a new lineup of the Modern Lovers as a trio, with Richman joined by guitarist Brennan Totten and drummer Johnny Avila.

With its acoustic instrumentation and spare arrangements, the sound of Modern Lovers 88 reflects Richman's love of early 1960s rock and roll and extreme aversion to loud amplification.

Richman scored a late-career debut on the Billboard charts when the reissue pushed Modern Lovers 88 to number 77 on Top Album Sales.

From that point onward, he preferred to work with a rotating cast of musicians on a more casual, fluid basis, rather than putting together a full backing band as a unit with a stable lineup.

[6] By this time in his career, music journalists noted Richman had developed a tendency to switch to a new label on virtually every new album he made.

[11] While he enjoyed the creative freedom Rough Trade had afforded him under the enthusiastic personal support of label head Geoff Travis, the company's financial doldrums meant they had done little to promote his music.

[22] Departing from his previous labels' tendency to lump his records in the "new wave" category, Rounder promoted him as "a quirky folkie", a persona more in line with his musical direction.

[38] The re-release sent Modern Lovers 88 to number 77 on Top Album Sales for the week of May 7, 2022, marking Richman's first-ever appearance on any Billboard chart.

For Rolling Stone, David Handelman summed up Richman's preceding mid-1980s output as "spotty, but always with shining moments"; he expressed a similarly mixed reaction to Modern Lovers 88, finding some tracks "honest and winning" while others "wear thin fast".

[32] Creem reviewer Craig Zeller wrote that "a lot of these songs do coast on minor melodies and self-borrowings a little too often but—as usual—Jonathan's engaging manner pulls you in.

"[9] Jim Zebora of the Record-Journal said the album showed Richman to be "one of rock's wonders" and highlighted the immediacy of his vocal performance, writing that "he's got guts to be so far out in front, unprotected by anything but his sincerity.

If you've never heard Richman before, [Modern Lovers 88] gives you a good sense of what he's about, his joyous spirit, his bad jokes, his willingness to be goofy on behalf of the things he believes.

Writing for Record Mirror, Ian Dickson said Richman "still hasn't grown up and, having grooved along to Modern Lovers 88, I hope he never will", while also claiming the songs to be "a lot more astute than you might imagine" in light of their sometimes juvenile subject matter.

[44] NME's Len Brown detected "an original spring in his steps, a daft charm in his innocence" that he compared favorably to the late 1970s Modern Lovers lineup, and wrote, "There's something reassuring about Jonathan's prolonged adolescence, something we can all depend on; if he ever grew up it would be as disturbing as Morrissey taking up wind-surfing.

"[41] Pete Clark at Hi-Fi News & Record Review wrote that "88 sees Richman further refining his muse, casting aside some of his more icky anthropomorphisms and descending still further into deep joy ...

[19] In the New Trouser Press Record Guide, Ira Robbins praised it as a "magical" and "all-too-brief set" with songs that "convert the essential ingredients of '50s R&B into airy but exciting dance-rock as only the Modern Lovers can.

"[55] Modern Lovers 88 received a highly favorable reassessment in the anthology Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed by critic Jacqueline Zahas, who said the album had become "stranded in his long catalog" but "reminds us that Jonathan's not just sweetness and whimsy, but a visionary, stubbornly working out his own unique brand of rock and roll.

"[56] The editors of the Scram anthology went further, calling for a broad reappraisal of Richman's solo efforts from the period: Deep catalogs that resist easy summary create their own problems.

The kid songs were only a brief transitional period to stake out a new sound and songwriting territory that had a huge influence on the nineties indie lo-fi scene.