Randy Newman

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.”