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Newman's Own Scorn Weighs Down Album

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 21, 2008

Updated:

If there was ever a pop performer who could reasonably be expected to improve with age, it's Randy Newman. Newman's first albums may have been released during the Age of Aquarius, but his songs didn't chronicle the dawn of anything.

While his contemporaries preached "us versus them" revolution, Newman humanized - hilariously - some of society's most vile creatures, from a rapist ("Suzanne") to a racist ("Rednecks") to a slave trader ("Sail Away").

So given that most of us just get more cynical and less idealistic as the years pass, it was perfectly reasonable to expect Newman, 64, to be peaking about now.

But no, you'll have to return to 1973's "Sail Away" and 1974's "Good Old Boys" to hear the Newman of legend. And while "Harps and Angels" is a welcome addition to Newman's relatively slender catalog of pop albums - one every 10 years or so since 1988 - it hardly represents a new career high.

"A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" gets on an album after its digital release in 2006. It starts funny and ends sad but doesn't have the sting it did two years ago.

"Potholes" and the title track seem to be narrated by the same aging, semi-corrupt soul who populated much of 1999's "Bad Love." The former begins with a rant about women and ends with one about his father and may be the album's funniest moment, besides "Korean Parents," which suggests the titular couple as an antidote for underachieving American youth.

But "Laugh and Be Happy" is irony more leaden than is usual for Newman, and "A Piece of the Pie" overdoses on bitterness, something Newman rarely does.

Maybe he'll peak in his 70s.

Download this: "Potholes"

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