Harps & Angels

First, let's get the easy part out of the way - "Harps and Angels" is another great album from Randy Newman. If you like Newman, you won't regret the purchase. For 40 years or so Randy Newman has been the troubadour of his generation, using razor-sharp wit and a soundscape steeped in Americana that is both the perfect foil for his irony and somehow deeply affecting at the same time. He understands America as it is, skewering its icons while empathizing with its losers. His songs are almost innocent in their underlying yearning for an America that could have been, but wasn't. "Harps and Angels" continues in the same introspective vein that was so startling in "Bad Love." Newman was in his mid-50s when "Bad Love" was released. "Harps and Angels" catches Randy Newman in his mid-60s. On both albums, the songs are remarkably personal. All but gone are songs like "Birmingham," "It's Lonely At the Top," and "Lucinda," in which Newman uses a central fictional character, whether telling the story in the first person or the third, to make precise, gemlike incisions into the narcissistic confabulation which has become the American dream. In their place are songs that are ruminations by a middle-aged man about himself, the people he knows, and the world he lives in. The tunes in "Harps and Angels" are no less unsparing, insightful and laugh out loud funny than those in "Sail Away," or "Trouble in Paradise," but they are songs written by a man looking back on his life and times, knowing that the end, if not quite in sight, will be here soon enough. In "Harps and Angels" Newman's awareness of his own mortality is everywhere. The title song is about the near-death experience of someone that could be Newman himself -- "My, heart began to pound, it was arhythmic and out of tune, I lost my equilibrium, and fell face down upon the ground" -- a 65-year-old man walking down the street felled by a heart attack. It turns out that the angels that surround him realize they have the wrong guy -- a clerical error -- and advise him to clean up his ways if he doesn't want to be met by pitchforks on the other side. In the hilarious "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" Newman rails with bitterness that "this Supreme Court is going to outlive me," and makes some choice comments about "two young Italians and a brother" -- Scalia, Alito, and Clarence Thomas. He talks about losing his memory in "Potholes," reflecting that considering his behavior during his life he can only hope that the potholes get bigger instead of smaller -- memory loss as a blessing to a reprobate nearing the end of his life. But "Harps and Angels" is not a depressing album. As always, going back to his earliest works, he cloaks his disappointment and disgust with the world and the people in it, including himself, in lyrics and music of such wit and humor that we can't help but crack a smile even when Newman is at his most bitter or morose. He damns his own generation for raising their kids in a world where the "Neighborhoods are dangerous, The public schools are bad." But then he offers the All-American easy way out. If you want your kids to excel in school, you don't have to pay more attention to them or work harder yourself, just hire "Korean Parents." Along the way, he takes well-aimed shots at the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots, the notion that John Cougar can be both a huckster for GM trucks and an authentic voice of the working stiff, and whatever else is "grinding his gears" (as Peter Griffin might say) these days. The music as ever is wonderful. From his trademark, lazy, slow-rolling New Orleans-inflected blues, to the Weimar cabaret music of Kurt Weill, Newman proves once again that he is a master at creating the perfect musical backdrop to add bite or irony or pathos to his songs. My only quibble with "Harps and Angels" is that it has been almost a decade since his last new album of original songs that are not movie soundtracks. I don't want to wait until Randy is 75 to get his next take on this American life.

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As soon as you hear the opening bars of Newman's rolling New Orleans piano you know you're in for another musical treat. Heavily influenced by Fats Domino, Tin Pan Alley and Dixieland his musical style allows no concessions to fashion but his great trick is to let the music accommodate and absorb his sardonic view of the world in general and the USA in particular. Reserving much of his barbed wit for the Bush administration he does at least remind us, "In A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country" that George is not as bad as the Caesars, Hitler, Stalin or King Leopold of Belgium who plundered the Congo of gold, silver and diamonds and left the natives with...... malaria! Then there is "A Piece Of The Pie" where "If you are living in the richest country in the world/wouldn't you think you'd have a better life" and observes that only Jackson Browne gives a sh*t. In "Korean Parents" he shares his satirical view that American adolescents would have fewer problems and be less dangerous if they were brought up by Korean parents who seemed to have the necessary skills well honed which has a resonance with Asian parents in our own country. But there are gentler numbers such as "Feels Like Home", "Only A Girl" and "Losing You" proving that Randy still has a sentimental side. Produced by lifelong friend, Lenny Waronker, this album, his first studio effort in 9 years, has all of the strengths associated with Randy Newman: lush arrangements, full orchestral sounds, musically and lyrically astute songs, his shuffling, bluesey delivery and that wonderful stride piano. Visited by Harps and Angels as he almost dies (due to a clerical error!) he says: "So actually the main thing about this story is for me/there really is an afterlife/and I hope to see all of you there/Let's go get a drink." Amen to that, Randy.

Randy Newman ist mein absoluter Favorit. Er begleitet mich seit vielen Jahren. Habe ihn sowohl in London als auch in Berlin live erlebt. Unvergesslich.

Si vous cherchez le Randy Newman de "You can leave your hat on", "Pants", "I Love LA", "Short People" ou "It's Money That Matters"...il n'est pas sur "Harps and Angels". Il semble qu'il ait pris le Dixie flyer et évolue donc désormais dans un Dixieland apaisé, loin du rock. La raison de cette évolution (dans la ligne toutefois de son dernier et désormais lointain "Bad Love") est sans doute expliquée dans la chanson titre (j'ai du mal avec le pompeux "éponyme"). Randy Newman, a frôlé la mort allongé sur un trottoir et il a vu les anges et entendu les harpes (au passage, notons que Dieu parle aussi, français -so chic !). Retour à l'essentiel, en moins de 35'. Pour autant, ce qui pourrait passer pour une ennuyeuse uniformité à la 1ère écoute, se révèle au fur et à mesure, d'une formidable cohérence et comme Randy n'a rien perdu de son talent pour écrire des textes drôles, tendres et/ou corrosifs, ce disque devient indispensable (un enfouissement dans les paroles du livret est fortement conseillé). La mélodie du court "Losing You" rappelle le "Follow The Flag" de " Land Of Dreams ", "Laugh And Happy" fait surgir des images d'un Baloo dansant et joyeux et un Randy compositeur de musiques de films. Le Newman sarcastique est pourtant toujours là : "A Few Words In Defense of our Country" (qui convoque Jackson Browne, Johnny Cougar et Bono), "A Piece of A Pie" et "Korean Parents"...Autant de moments de réjouissance pour les mauvais esprits qui sommeillent en nous (en tout cas, en moi....). "Only A Girl", "Potholes" (une ode aux trous de mémoires) et la belle déclaration sentimentale de "Feels Like Home" complètent cet album. Randy Newman n'est pas mort. Au contraire, en tendant vers l'épure, il vise l'immortalité.