Randy Newman album cover
Randy Newman

Randy Newman

1968
Reprise Records

His songs had already been performed by the likes of Gene Pitney and Cilla Black, but Randy Newman was the first full-length that gave listeners a clear glimpse of the psychology behind the songwriter for hire. Or a slightly obscured glimpse, really, given the canny ways that Newman effaces the self in his songs; they’re rarely about the self. What they are about, then, is the confusions of mid-twentieth century American life, channelled through time-honoured themes (love, loss, need, using and being used by others). Randy Newman feels unique in the artist’s catalog in its orchestral settings – later, Newman would opt for more direct settings for his solo songs. Van Dyke Parks is present as co-producer, which makes plenty of sense, given the curious, anomalous mood of the album (though it shares a certain aged timelessness with Parks’s own Song Cycle). “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” is the classic song here, but there are better on the album – particularly when it feels like Newman is tossing the songs aside as he performs them, e.g. “So Long Dad,” “Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad.”

Jon Dale

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