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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling. A Grammy is in the cards !, August 5, 2008
Randy Newman has made a career out of being a very successful film composer (with 15 Oscar nominations and one win), who is best known these days for his "Pixar" soundtracks, including "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters Inc".
But it is on his own albums, when he is not writing to order, that he really gets to let fly with as much comedic misanthropy as he can muster.
His last album, "Bad Love" was a brilliant black diamond of a record and his best for 30 years.
"Harps & Angels" finds him in a more mellow mood. But mellow is a relative term.
America, like all empires, has come to an end. This is the driving theme of "Harps & Angels", but Newman is a man of multitudes. He spits at US governance one minute ("A Few Words in Defence Of Our Country") and chokes up the next ("Feels Like Home').
The personal and political entwine lyrically with supreme cleverness, while New Orleans jazz, C&W, the Hollywood soundtrack are spitefully parodied. Classic Randy.
"Harps And Angels" is the first track and is about a man having a heart attack. The sound of harps and angels comes from God's backing singers as the judgment is delivered: "You ain't been a good man, you ain't been a bad man..."
Most of "Harps & Angels", like much of Newman's canon, is similar glorious, if bleak, whimsy.
His formidable backing band, comprising producer, time-served collaborator Mitchell Froom on keyboards, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, virtuoso jazz bassist Greg Cohen, veteran session guitarist Steve Donnelly and pedal steel player Greg Leisz, conspire with a full-dress orchestra to confect country ballads, show tunes, Dixieland balladry, oriental pop and, on "Laugh And Be Happy", a groundbreaking enterprise in sarcastic Charleston. This has circulated in demo form before, and two other songs may also be familiar.
The closing cut, the gorgeous devotional "Feels Like Home" first appeared on 1995's "Faust", sung by Bonnie Raitt, and has since been covered by Emmylou Harris and Chantal Krevaziuk, among others. "A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country" was as an iTunes download - and New York Times op-ed - last year.
The lyrics of the latter made the op-ed page of the newspaper, but they work much better sung in Newman's lazy Noo Awlins croak - "the end of an empire is messy at best, this empire is ending like all the rest".
In "A Piece of The Pie", he hammers home his the-rich-get-richer theme with jagged, Kurt Weill-ish orchestration, while "Potholes" recommends creeping amnesia as a defence against painful memories. "Korean Parents", with its pseudo-Oriental flourishes, may be a misanthropic joke too far as Newman lampoons Asian families who bully their children to academic success, but he offers melodious balm with "Losing You" and the hymn-like closer, the aforementioned "Feels Like Home".
Fans of unfettered Newman have been waiting nine years for some new, non-cartoon material of this sort and will likely not be disappointed by this pithy ten-song collection, which indulges both his merciless wit and his softer, more sentimental side.
This album will only take up 36 minutes of your time. It'll make you laugh and cry.
After all, it's Randy Newman.
The fortuneteller says that a Grammy is...in the cards!
Toy Story (10th Anniversary Edition)
A Bug's Life (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Bad Love
Monsters, Inc. (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman
Faust (Dlx)
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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Quite, August 10, 2008
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.
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great..A real fun listen, August 7, 2008
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."
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MP3 Download by Randy Newman
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