Bad Love

Randy Newman

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 1, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ume Imports
• ASIN: B00000J7R4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,020 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

More than a decade passed between song collections from Randy Newman, a drought that's finally ended with Bad Love, an album the self-critical songsmith ranks with his best. Age certainly hasn't mellowed the satirical composer, who targets Western imperialists, shameful lechers, and burned-out rock stars this time out. --Steven Stolder

Amazon.com

Three songs into Bad Love, Randy Newman lobs a smart bomb into the bunker of classic rock, impersonating a boomer-aged rocker just going through the motions, "Each record that [he's] making ... like a record that [he's] made--just not as good." Giving the punch line added snap is the happy irony of Newman's own music at midlife, which proves as perceptive, funny, and, yes, moving as any he's recorded. Comparisons to past triumphs are inevitable here, and mostly favorable, starting with the mock piety of "My Country," an anthem to America's virtual family life entranced by television, "having other people's voices fill our minds." Elsewhere, he grins through a new geopolitical patter song ("The Great Nations of Europe"), undertakes his own dialectic on materialism with the ghost of Karl Marx ("The World Isn't Fair"), and, in the album's mordant zenith, conjures the sputtering jealousy and lust of an elderly New Orleans burgher smitten by a sweet young thing. That song, "Shame," embellishes a piano blues that might have fit snugly on 12 Songs, with choral and instrumental flourishes that are apt and hilarious--mocking female singers repeat the title in frank emulation of Sylvia Robinson's venerable disco hit, while elsewhere Newman's arrangements suggest Carl Stalling's vivid Looney Tunes scores. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bad Love = Great Album, May 29, 2000

By	"mxw991" (London) - See all my reviews

One of the most universally admired and critically acclaimed song-writers, this old-timer still has one hell of a lot to say. Randy Newman is one of those guys who writes songs straight from his cynical, sardonic, soleful heart with more than a hint of black-comedy.

Laden with pathos and humour in equal measure, this album sounds like it was written by a 60 year-old with more than a life-time's worth of broken hearts and hate-mail, but lucky for us, he likes to sing about it.

Picking highlights from this excellent album is hard - the hillarious "Shame" and "I'm Dead But I Don't Know It"(about an ageing, out of date, singer-song writer who just won't shut up...) or the beautiful "Every Time It Rains" (possibly the sweetest lost-love song ever recorded -written and sung as only Newman knows how... ) and "I Miss You" (a candid account of a love affair that never happened... "It's a little bit late, twenty years or so" )...

When you're taking time out from listening to whatever the hell you normally listen to, listen to a superbly crafted, subtle, album, with real songs, written with a life-time's real experience.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen Up!, February 10, 2000

By A Customer

I asked for this CD for Christmas after one hearing of the song "Shame". I figured that song alone was worth the price of admission. I was far from disappointed with the rest, and find myself consistantly choosing this CD when I really have the time to sit back and listen. "Bad Love" exemplifies master songwriting - coupling wry, funny and poignant lyrics with often beautiful, often quirky, but always original Newman music. His songs are like Sweet Tarts for the ears and mind, ranging from the Gilbert and Sullivanesque "Great Nations of Europe" to C & W ("Big Hat") to Hard Rock ("I'm Dead") to gut-wrenching love ("I Miss You" and "Every Time It Rains"). As a 52 year old musician and music lover, I find Randy is one of the few artists who is still "Talkin' Bout My Generation" but still has alot to say to the young men "runnin' free and runnin' wild". In the words of another American Treasure of my generation, Neil Young - Randy, "Long May You Run".

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great to have him back doing a regular record., November 20, 1999

By A Customer

it's been ten years, at least, since Randy's concentrated on doing something like a regular record. Faust was a different kind of project, and the other film music has been work for hire that does not always include his very specific sensibility. Bad Love is a treasure that improves with each hearing. Though Newman likes to say he creates characters, and they sing the songs, not him (i.e: Rednecks, Davy the Fat Boy, etc.) the autobiographical songs on Land of Dreams show that sometimes he does write about himself. Don't miss the splendid "Every Time it Rains" (he always does well with rain imagery in music) or the heartwrenching "I Miss You". (glad I'm not his second wife--listening to this song about his first--ouch!)All in all, stunning. People may argue about the production, but the work is magnificent.