Customer Reviews

Harps & Angels

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First, let's get the easy part out of the way - "Harps and Angels" is another great album from Randy Newman. If you like Newman, you won't regret the purchase.

For 40 years or so Randy Newman has been the troubadour of his generation, using razor-sharp wit and a soundscape steeped in Americana that is both the perfect foil for his irony and somehow deeply affecting at the same time. He understands America as it is, skewering its icons while empathizing with its losers. His songs are almost innocent in their underlying yearning for an America that could have been, but wasn't.

"Harps and Angels" continues in the same introspective vein that was so startling in "Bad Love." Newman was in his mid-50s when "Bad Love" was released. "Harps and Angels" catches Randy Newman in his mid-60s. On both albums, the songs are remarkably personal. All but gone are songs like "Birmingham," "It's Lonely At the Top," and "Lucinda," in which Newman uses a central fictional character, whether telling the story in the first person or the third, to make precise, gemlike incisions into the narcissistic confabulation which has become the American dream. In their place are songs that are ruminations by a middle-aged man about himself, the people he knows, and the world he lives in. The tunes in "Harps and Angels" are no less unsparing, insightful and laugh out loud funny than those in "Sail Away," or "Trouble in Paradise," but they are songs written by a man looking back on his life and times, knowing that the end, if not quite in sight, will be here soon enough.

In "Harps and Angels" Newman's awareness of his own mortality is everywhere. The title song is about the near-death experience of someone that could be Newman himself -- "My, heart began to pound, it was arhythmic and out of tune, I lost my equilibrium, and fell face down upon the ground" -- a 65-year-old man walking down the street felled by a heart attack. It turns out that the angels that surround him realize they have the wrong guy -- a clerical error -- and advise him to clean up his ways if he doesn't want to be met by pitchforks on the other side. In the hilarious "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" Newman rails with bitterness that "this Supreme Court is going to outlive me," and makes some choice comments about "two young Italians and a brother" -- Scalia, Alito, and Clarence Thomas. He talks about losing his memory in "Potholes," reflecting that considering his behavior during his life he can only hope that the potholes get bigger instead of smaller -- memory loss as a blessing to a reprobate nearing the end of his life.

But "Harps and Angels" is not a depressing album. As always, going back to his earliest works, he cloaks his disappointment and disgust with the world and the people in it, including himself, in lyrics and music of such wit and humor that we can't help but crack a smile even when Newman is at his most bitter or morose. He damns his own generation for raising their kids in a world where the "Neighborhoods are dangerous, The public schools are bad." But then he offers the All-American easy way out. If you want your kids to excel in school, you don't have to pay more attention to them or work harder yourself, just hire "Korean Parents." Along the way, he takes well-aimed shots at the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots, the notion that John Cougar can be both a huckster for GM trucks and an authentic voice of the working stiff, and whatever else is "grinding his gears" (as Peter Griffin might say) these days.

The music as ever is wonderful. From his trademark, lazy, slow-rolling New Orleans-inflected blues, to the Weimar cabaret music of Kurt Weill, Newman proves once again that he is a master at creating the perfect musical backdrop to add bite or irony or pathos to his songs.

My only quibble with "Harps and Angels" is that it has been almost a decade since his last new album of original songs that are not movie soundtracks. I don't want to wait until Randy is 75 to get his next take on this American life.

I did not expect so many of the songs on this short (34 min.) new offering to be raps -- Newman talks over his piano accompaniment with orchestral embellishment. Newman has used this technique effectively in the past, on "The Girls In My Life" from the Born Again album. The title track is a conversational rap, and it's a complete success. "In Defense of My Country" also works nicely as Newman talks, not sings, his lines.

I can't be as enthusiastic about Easy Street (half spoken, half sung), or "Potholes" (mostly spoken). Nor did I find the melodies on "A Piece of The Pie" or "Korean Parents" particularly appealing.

Lyrically, Newman ruminates on the state of the nation, and some topics related to aging and mortality, love that you appreciate (Feels Like Home) and love that's lost (Losing You). It's sharp stuff, but not as sharp as the old days. Well, what can you expect but a slight mellowing from a Randy Newman who's on the cusp of Social Security?

The orchestration is lovely -- it will take you right back to the classic albums he did in the mid 70's. Laugh And Be Happy sounds a bit like burlesque show music, and A Piece Of The Pie is very theatrical. The other arrangements will sound very familiar to Randy Newman fans -- bringing to mind Ragtime-era turn-of-previous-century fare.

The sound quality is not so lovely. It favors the midrange, the dynamics are compressed. Such is the fashion in audio engineering these days, but it makes Newman's voice more grating and froggy than it should be, and Newman's voice doesn't need any help in that department.

The title track and A Few Words In Defense... are standout tracks. The one that tops them all is the final cut, Feels Like Home. I actually thought this song was penned by Chantal Kreviazuk. It was a bonus track on the American release of her album What If It All Means Something. The song suits her. As a bonus track, the liner notes were silent about the composer. It turns out Randy Newman wrote this for his Faust album, which I have not heard. Coming from the cynical Newman, this heartfelt love song seems out of place in this collection, yet Randy is just as effective singing this unaffected melodious confession as he is raising an eyebrow on American society. Feels Like Home has a classic, anthemic melody (especially anthemic in Chantal Kreviazuk's cover of it) that makes up for some of the lack of melody on the rest of the record.

While the songs on Harps & Angels all amused me as I listened to them the first time, I seriously wonder how many of them I will want to hear again, outside of the standouts I mentioned. That would be my only reservation about purchasing the album. So a final rating of three and a half stars for a record that is never less than good, and sometimes very good. Still, objectively it falls short of five star greatness.

Randy Newman gets a three-star head-start for being Randy Newman, but this is an oddly anemic effort. It's billed as an album of all new material, but it's not: "Laugh & Be Happy" was written for the Pixar animators easily 15 years ago in response to the Evil Mouse meddling; "Feels Like Home" is from Faust, also going back close to 15 years now. Several other songs feel like cast-offs from earlier albums/projects. Among those that don't, several of those feel like Randy Newman consciously writing Randy Newman songs, instead of simply writing songs.

Don't get me wrong, that three-star head-start comes with a lot of gifts: intricate internal harmonies, lush string arrangements, and a barbed, rambunctious and often simply hilarious sense of irony, in bold display here to an extent often nodded at but not usually found in such raw abundance on his records (as opposed to live performances).

And there are pleasures to be found here, to be sure, not least of which the twisted "Korean Parents," and the one-sided conversations that serve as bridges in several of the tunes. But if you're licking your chops waiting to get your synapses fired off by 9 years of deliciously marinating Newman tunes, I'm afraid you'll have to settle for a few light appetizers and an entertaining waiter.

Randy and his usual brilliant, hilarious lyrics. He vocally plays it very loose on this album, seemingly ad-libbing lines - all to great effect. In today's market, if this were an unknown artist (and a minority) this could be album of the year.

The hits: Harp and Angels, Losing You, A Few Words, Easy Street, Only A Girl, Potholes.
The misses: Laugh & Be Happy, A Piece Of The Pie, Korean Parents, Feels Like Home.

Nothing here comes up to the level of "Good Old Boys' (1973) - but it's still worth the purchase. All feel-good songs, except the heartbreakingly beautiful "Losing You."

Randy Newman's humor was what led me to him in the first place. Well, that and his New Orleans laid back piano.

From the opening title song, "Harps and Angels" had me laughing. Randy's back with his ironic wit and I'm glad to hear it.

I admit, I don't always agree with his politics, but Randy's basic sentiments about life are still grand. And I'll never dispute his right to say what he feels--particularly to a funky Dixie beat.

My favorites:

Laugh and be Happy
Harps and Angels

Rebecca Kyle, September 2008

Randy Newman is modern day, singing Voltaire who has turned his prodigious wit on a selection of social concerns that lead him to question whether the best days of the US Imperium are over. His targets here are the more serious offenders: religious humbuggery ("Harps & Angels"), failed political leadership ("A Few Word in Defense of Our Country"), lack of engagement with the serious concerns of our times ("Laugh & be Happy"), social and financial inequality ("Piece of The Pie"), dysfunctional relationships ("Only a Girl"), and parental confusion ("Korean parents"). There are two particularly beautiful ballads on this album that are likely to outlive the ephemeral political concerns of the other material. "Loosing You" is the confession of a middle aged man who has it all, but remains haunted by profound loss. The counterbalance is the wonderfully orchestrated ballad "Feels Like Home". The narrator finds love again after a long respite, returning to a place where he feels a profound sense of belonging. The essence of the song is encapsulated in this beautiful line: "feels like I'm on my way back where I'm from, with your embrace, down a long dark street and a sigh of wind in the night. It's alright, `cause I have you here with me, and I can almost see the dark feels light". Randy Newman is a marvel. I saw him live at the Capitol in Sydney in the late 1970's. For me, at times he projects the persona of a curmudgeon at a pantomime, but his wonderful catalogue belies any misanthropy. He is a great American, but more importantly a citizen of the world, in love with the best the human race has to offer, but vigilant about its failings. May he live forever.

Same old Randy at his critical best. I wish it would have been longer.

It's a very good disc with beautifull songs. Fantastic well-known irony, beautifull arrangements, orchestration, it's all there.

Randy Newman is the most astute songwriter and thinker when it comes to social commentary. Not everyone "gets" him, but I crave his voice and his original songs. I have listened to this amazing album over and over, especially the song "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country." Truly, he has "heard America singing."

This poignant, clever, brilliant album by a master of irony resonates with truth and beauty. Newman has always been one of my favorite artists (even though I'm not as big a fan of his film scores as his solo work) and this album ranks with his best. Welcome back, Randy. Long may you play. (To everyone: buy this--keep this artist in business.)