Since Randy Newman is certainly my musical hero of the moment, I felt it would be worth trying to promote his new album, Bad Love. I don't suppose anybody will buy it despite being CD of the week in several national UK newspapers as well as rave reviews in pop magazines. The probably with Randy Newman is that his songs just don't appeal to the kind of people who like Steps, The Spice Girls, Ricky Martin or whoever the band du jour is at the moment. His singing doesn't help much, it's occasionally not entirely in tune and not exactly beautiful. However, for most of his songs, his voice is perfect. When you're being that sardonic and satirical, you can't have songs sung like a boy band or similar.
My Country is the longest song that Newman has written for himself, but this is certainly no bad thing. Mainly a commentry on the way the family unit spend so long watching television, but how that Newman (or at least as his role as the narrator) understands these peoples. It didn't quite appeal to me on first listening, but (like many of his songs) warrants several listens. Shame is one of those monologue songs which doesn't really have much tune to speak of, but is mainly just semi-spoken in time with the backing music (which in this case is a moody jazz vamping along). The female chorus does make an appearance here, providing the only musical hook, singing "Shame, Shame, Shame Shaaaaaaame" - although the funniest moment in the song is when Randy tells them to.... well that would spoild the surprise, but it is very funny indeed.
I'm Dead is a "tribute" to all those pass their sell-by date rock stars (unlike Newman who is on top form). It forms the only pure rock and roll number on the album and is actually quite a hard edged arrangement compared to his more easy listening rock and roll numbers. Every Time it Rains was written for megastar Michael Jackson, but he evidently didn't end up sing it, which is rather a shame since it's a wonderful song. It's certainly one of those songs which needs a slighlty gentler touch than Randy's voice can provide. I'd suggest Peter Gabriel (who sang That'll Do, the song Newman wrote for Babe 2) as his voice is almost as gravelly as Rand's, but is much more lyrical. However, the production does the song well and it comes out better than we'd have any right to expect. My favourite song is Great Nations of Europe which charts the European progress in slowly spreading disease as they hop from shore to shore. "They got TB, typhoid, athletes foot, dyptheria and the flu" being one of many very amusing lines. The arrangement is very Guilbert and Sullivan - all flute counter melodies and trumpet fanfares, but the performance and lyrics are very Randy Newman. Great stuff.
The One You Love again vamps along with half spoken/sung lyrics and tells of the way you have to know everything about your lover or they'll leave you. The World isn't Fair seems to start as a paean towards Marxism (indeed much of the song is directed as a speech for Marx). However, it transpires as a commentry on the way that old froggish men (as Rand puts it) seem to end up with stunningly attractive trophy wives. Big Hat, No Cattle is a full on country and western number with some amusingly blunt key changes and comments on the way that members of a family just lie to each other for piece of mind, rather than accepting the truth. Better of Dead uses the old Newman trick of countering a bitter set of lyrics against a charmingly pretty tune and this works just as well as any that have preceeded. I Miss You is directed toward Newman's first wife and while not the most profound set of lyrics on their own certainly work given the context. The melody is also extremely attractive.
Going Home was evidently written some time ago since it appears on Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman which was released in 1998. It is deliberately recorded to sound like it was recorded in the 1930's with a lot of hiss and crackle which was apparently to disguise a crack in Newman's vocal range. I have to say that the song isn't anything all that special, it's very short and doesn't make much of an impact. The demo version from the boxed set sounds just fine with just Newman and the piano, strange that they went to such great lengths on the final release performance. I Want Everyone to Like Me could easily have written by me, in fact I'm quite annoyed that Randy thought of the title first since I spend ages writing songs and always felt that writing one about how desperate I wanted people to like my songs would be a good vent for my annoyance. However, in this instance, everyone should like Randy, but for some curious reason no-one really seems to for whatever reason and so no-one buys his records. A week or so after this album was released, it still wasn't in the top 200 charts. What a stunning shame. I just hope that I can encourage at least one person to purchase it since it's his first song album in 11 years and just shows that Randy Newman is as sharp, witty and musically talented as ever. Hope we don't have to wait so long until the next one!
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 44:53