The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1

iTunes Review

Much has been made of Randy Newman’s fabled Hollywood ancestry (paternal uncles Alfred, Lionel, and Emil were legends in the film scoring trade, while cousins Thomas and David also continue the Newman family business), but his songwriter’s soul seems more inexorably rooted in his mother’s Louisiana heritage. That sensibility — and particularly the long musical shadows of New Orleans — are never far from these spare solo takes on the best of Newman’s early career as one of America’s most gifted — if thoroughly cynical — tunesmiths. Delivered with a haunting, occasionally troubling empathy by a voice that was made for silent movies, Randy embodies a cast of characters here that includes slave-trading pitchman (“Sail Away”), a decidedly human-weary deity (“God’s Song”), even a child murdering psychopath based on Fritz Lang’s M (“In Germany Before the War”, a song he’s been known to dedicate to the “kids in the audience”). Whether voicing deep-seeded Southern bigotry (“Good Old Boys”) or a pervert’s misunderstood romance (“You Can Leave You Hat On”) with equally infectious enthusiasm, Newman isn’t so much musical misanthrope as shrewd judge of character.