I know he's been doing albums for decades, but I've never been a fan of Randy Newman. I just never got it. His bizarre half-talking style of singing just never caught on with me.
Harps and Angels is, without a doubt, the most surprising, humorous piece of music I've bought this year. His mix of piano jazz, Dixieland, and show tunes isn't the surprise: it's the brutally political lyrics and the sense of humor that keep me playing this album. In "A Piece Of The Pie", he asks "living in the richest country in the world, don't you think you'd have a better life?" and then tells us "the French fries are great". That pretty much sums up the album: America is going to crap, let's laugh about it.
To counter the political material, he has some beautiful love ballads like "Losing You" and "Feels Like Home" that give this album a good flow. Songs like "Korean Parents" are just as much comedy sketches as they are songs, but the beauty of the orchestrations unfold after a couple listens.
At 35 minutes long, its a brief listen that you'll want to hear again to try and make sense of the lyrics. If you like traditional songwriters like Bob Dylan or Tom Waits, spend some time with this one; it will grow on you even if you're an uninitiated Newman listener.
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