Sunday, October 21, 2012

"BAD LOVE"

1999
-by Randy Newman
A friend of mine once argued that no historically great album was ever made by anyone past their twenties. I took exception. Having just heard BAD LOVE by Randy Newman, the product of a man in his fourth decade as a writer/singer, i take even stronger exception. I haven't heard the Newman catalogue, but if his early work is as good, i'm a little frightened. Bitingly sharp, flabbergastingly honest, melodically distinct, with styles ranging from piano ballad, to country, to full-bore rocker. This one instantly rates consideration for any "all-time greatest albums" list.
"My Country"
A sardonically sentimental reminisce about growing up american. With Newman, it's sometimes hard to peg exactly where the satire ends and the sincere begins...where he's taking on the voice of an everyman, or where he's just throwing himself out there...but that's all part of the point, i think. He sings of how intertwined television has become with being american. Regretfully? Embracingly? Both? Randy sings sweetly of visits from his grown children, yet finishes with the thought "I'm always kind of glad when they go away". Sounds about right to me.
"Shame"
Towering. An old, rich man sings a love/hate note to a young woman who gives him attention only for his money. He goes into fits of homicidal jealousy, as the backup singers shame him. For some, Randy's greatest claim to fame is the song "Short People", which ranks as one the five funniest pop songs ever. Audaciously, impossibly, he may now have two songs on that list. You'll be giggling and chuckling at random moments for years to come, as lines ("But I will say this") pop into your head.
"I'm Dead (but I don't know it)"
A burner where Randy makes fun of grey-haired rockers still trying to do what they did thirty years before (himself?). The satire is perfect, yet when he sings of pathetically losing a step or five, you may feel a stab of confusion, because you're bouncing and smiling as much as you would for any great goddamned song.
"Every Time It Rains"
A sweet, perhaps forgettable tune of love lost.
"The Great Nations of Europe"
Newman the satirist at his sharpest, as he fetes Europe's bloody conquest of the world over the past five centuries. Who can make genocide fun? Randy can!
"The One You Love"
Randy turns his caustic eye where it's needed - romance. The inconsistencies, the ruined lives, the blind stupidities that no one learns from...
"The World Isn't Fair"
Newman sings a tune to old Karl Marx, about how he'd be rolling around in his grave if he could see the world today. As he so often does, he makes it hysterically personal, singing about his new wife and family, and meeting a flock of similarly outrageously young and beautiful mothers with froglike, old husbands at a school conference. Perfect.
"Big Hat, No Cattle"
A swinging cowboy tune about how the writer is, and always has been, a pathetic pretender. Fun.
"Better Off Dead"
A lament about how many love affairs are painfully imbalanced, and loving someone who ultimately don't care so much about you. Classic.
"I Miss You"
If you or anyone you know ever want an example of how Randy may be the most honest songwriter who ever lived, go to this little tune. It's a naked tear-jerker, without a touch of maudlinity...a tune to his ex-wife, with whom he spent many years (with as many bad as good). Years after they split, he writes this song out of sincerity...but also because "I'd sell my soul and your souls for a song". Such a heartless line might make make many uncomfortable, but there's always a plea for humanistic understanding in the cynical things he writes.
"Going Home"
A lovely snippet.
"I Want Everyone to Like Me"
A swingy shuffler that taps into everyone's obsessive need to be, well, liked. Er, well-liked. Is it modest? Immodest? Brilliant? Yes, yes, and yes.

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