Album:
The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:58
Size: 107.5 MB
Styles: Contemporary Pop/Rock
Year: 2003
Art: Front
[3:12] 1. It's Lonely At The Top
[3:25] 2. God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)
[2:55] 3. Louisiana 1927
[2:37] 4. Let Me Go
[3:04] 5. Rednecks
[0:57] 6. Avalon
[2:15] 7. Living Without You
[2:56] 8. I Think It's Going To Rain Today
[2:31] 9. You Can Leave Your Hat On
[2:15] 10. It's Money That I Love
[2:54] 11. Marie
[1:02] 12. When She Loved Me
[2:58] 13. Sail Away
[3:07] 14. The World Isn't Fair
[2:02] 15. Political Science
[3:24] 16. The Great Nations Of Europe
[3:49] 17. In Germany Before The War
[1:24] 18. Ragtime
Between 1977 and 1988, Randy Newman seemed bound and determined to prove he could be a pop star, which is no small task when your voice is froggy, wear glasses, and your favorite themes are racism and insensitivity. While Newman managed to make some very good albums during that span of time -- most notably 1983's Trouble in Paradise -- his desire to wrap a harsh message in a pretty package didn't always serve his art especially well, with one side seemingly compromising the other. But Newman's late-career success as a composer of film scores (complete with an Oscar) seems to have satiated his desire for fame and fortune, and he's been willing to take on a less cluttered approach in his own recordings. 1999's Bad Love was the leanest and most direct Newman album since Sail Away in 1972, and in 2003 he revisited his back catalog with The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1. Here, Newman sits at the piano and, with no other accompaniment, sings 15 songs he wrote between 1966 and 1999 (and plays short extracts from three his film scores), and the simplicity of this presentation makes this a superb showcase for the intelligence, grace, and craft of Newman's songs. There's plenty of venom in Newman's humor, but more than a little compassion as well, and he doesn't pick easy or simple targets. Here Newman does a masterful job of portraying his rogues' gallery, from a cynical God ("God's Song [That's Why I Love Mankind]") and a pathetic would-be ladies' man ("You Can Leave Your Hat On") to a slave trader looking to convince Africans to give up their freedom ("Sail Away") and a casually genocidal world leader ("Political Science"), and in each performance he makes his characters sound sadly, hilariously human and easily recognizable. And while there's little flash in Newman's piano style, the easy elegance and understated New Orleans roll of his touch at the keyboard is at once beautifully subtle and subtly beautiful. There isn't much to The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1 -- just a guy playing piano and singing his songs -- but it's just enough to make you laugh, wince, and almost cry; it's the work of one of the few people in pop music who merits the description "genius," and it's a remarkable summation of his singular talent. ~Mark Deming
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Album:
The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:42
Size: 88.6 MB
Styles: Contemporary Pop/Rock
Year: 2011
Art: Front
[3:19] 1. Dixie Flyer
[2:02] 2. Yellow Man
[2:45] 3. Suzanne
[1:46] 4. The Girls In My Life (Part 1)
[2:11] 5. Kingfish
[2:44] 6. Losing You
[2:16] 7. Sandman's Coming
[3:25] 8. My Life Is Good
[2:20] 9. Birmingham
[1:54] 10. Last Night I Had A Dream
[2:45] 11. Same Girl
[3:02] 12. Baltimore
[2:19] 13. Laugh And Be Happy
[1:35] 14. Lucinda
[1:51] 15. Dayton, Ohio 1903
[2:21] 16. Cowboy
Nearly eight years after releasing The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1, in which one of America's finest and most distinctive songwriters revisited a handful of songs from his back catalog in elegant, austere new recordings, Newman has delivered the implied follow-up, in which he revisits 16 more tunes with just his own piano work accompanying his vocals. Unlike many veteran artists past official retirement age, Newman's skills as a performer haven't suffered a bit with the passage of time, and these new recordings sound fresh and immediate; while Newman has never had a traditionally "good" voice, his instrument sounds as strong as ever and he's even better at assuming his cast of often questionable characters than he was on his early LPs, while his piano playing, a remarkable fusion of traditional pop and New Orleans groove, is emotionally and technically dazzling and gives these songs all the form and color they need. As good as it is, The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 2 feels a bit like the second Greatest Hits album drawn from a career artist's catalog; so many great songs were pulled for Vol. 1 that the sophomore effort seems slightly weak in comparison, and though Newman certainly has enough great songs to come up with another Songbook installment as strong as the first, there are a few numbers here that aren't A-list, particularly "Sandman's Coming" from his fascinating but flawed musical Faust and "My Life Is Good," one of the rare examples of his venom not finding its target (it's also one of the only songs here that doesn't seem suited to this minimal arrangement). And while "Laugh And Be Happy" fares well, it also appeared on Newman's last pop effort, 2008's excellent Harps and Angels, and there are plenty of songs that better deserve a second look. The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 2 seems flawed compared to its sibling, but that's more a matter of the choice of material than any fault in Newman's performance or interpretation; he's the rare performer and songwriter who could undertake this sort of project and not only keep it from seeming redundant, but make it revelatory and consistently pleasurable. Longtime fans will be pleased, and folks who only know Newman from his film scores will be startled at the depth of the man's body of work, even on a collection with a couple of (relative) ringers. ~Mark Deming
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Album:
The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 3
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:57
Size: 89.2 MB
Styles: Contemporary Pop/Rock
Year: 2016
Art: Front
[2:07] 1. Short People
[1:53] 2. Mama Told Me Not To Come
[3:03] 3. Love Story
[2:28] 4. Burn On
[2:03] 5. You've Got A Friend In Me
[2:30] 6. Rollin'
[2:44] 7. Guilty
[1:46] 8. Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear
[2:38] 9. Davy The Fat Boy
[2:18] 10. Red Bandana
[2:35] 11. Old Man
[2:30] 12. Real Emotional Girl
[2:24] 13. I Love To See You Smile
[2:30] 14. I Love L.A
[2:57] 15. Bad News From Home
[2:22] 16. I'll Be Home
The third in Randy Newman's series of albums in which he revisits material from his back catalog in stripped-down piano and voice fashion, The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3 opens with "Short People," his first hit single and a song he's publicly cited as one of his lesser works. While Newman's performance of the song is engaging, it seems an odd choice to kick off the album, and for the most part, Vol. 3 seems less concerned with reassessing little-known gems in Newman's repertoire than in establishing an alternate universe "Greatest Hits" set that collects popular favorites ("I'll Be Home," "Mama Told Me Not to Come," "You've Got a Friend in Me," "I Love to See You Smile") and numbers long embraced by loyal fans ("Love Story," "Burn On," "Rollin'"). For the most part, the performances here are splendid; Newman's piano work remains excellent as he finds the sweet spot between New Orleans stride and Brill Building pop, and one of the biggest pleasures of this series is hearing his keyboard work clear and unencumbered. Newman's voice has never been described as mellifluous, but his vocal performances here are as strong as ever, and his gift for inhabiting his characters is just about flawless. But most of these songs are quite familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of Newman's work, and paring them down to their framework doesn't always flatter them. Half of the joke of "I Love L.A." was in the expansive pop arrangement from its original recording on Trouble in Paradise, and the version on Vol. 3 only serves to make that clear, while "Red Bandana" (one of the few songs here that's relatively little-known) similarly sounds hollow in a solo arrangement. That said, there are also a few numbers that truly stand out here; the fatalism of "Love Song" and "Old Man" cuts even deeper in these recordings, and "Bad News from Home" sounds as ominous as a bad dream in its most basic form. Ultimately, The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3 is the weakest album in the series; the songs are fine, as is Newman's craft as a performer, but too much of this is familiar to anyone who has an appreciation of this great songwriter's work, and these variant performances are strong but add only so much to his legacy. ~Mark Deming
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