It’s been nine years since Randy Newman released a studio album, preferring instead to direct his considerable talents to composing film scores. This Academy Award-winning songwriter has written music for over a dozen movies, including Ragtime, The Natural and four Disney features, including Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. The movies have proved a perfect medium for Newman’s lush, soaring orchestration.

But now the man who brought us “Short People,” “Rednecks” and “Political Science” is back with Harps and Angels, an album that continues his acidic and satirical take on America. The collection contains seven new songs and three updated versions of previously released songs.

Like his best work, Harps and Angels is not shy about taking on controversial subjects and presenting them from a character point of view. Newman is a wry chameleon who both pokes fun at this country and celebrates it at the same time. Several songs have a decidedly political edge. “Laugh and Be Happy” and “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country” take the listener on a walking tour of history—with hilarious and catchy results. In “A Few Words,” Newman laments the decline of the American empire “whose time at the top may be coming to an end... at times like these we could sure use a friend.”

Similarly the song “Korean Parents” takes on the country’s failing educational system, presenting the parents of Korean children as models of discipline and fairness.

Newman has always made his point with humor and jaunty melodies—his bouncy piano runs make the civics lesson go down easy. He’s one of the rare songwriters who can make you think and want to sing along at the same time. With Harps and Angels, he is back in top form.

By Robert Rossiello

Please login to post your comments.