Tune in to the Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS to watch Randy Newman perform the song "Easy Street" off his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels. You can also catch Randy discussing "Easy Street" on the latest video to be added to nonesuch.com/media, part of the weeklong series of interviews and performances being added to the site. On NPR's Fresh Air, reviewer Ken Tucker is driven to goosebumps by the record, The Village Voice calls the music of this "master of sardonic humor" immortal, and Paste asserts: "You don't get Newman like this very often."
Tune in to the Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS to watch Randy Newman perform "Easy Street" off his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels. The show begins at 11:30 PM ET.
You can also catch Randy talking about the song on the latest video to be added to nonesuch.com/media, part of the week-long series of interviews and performances being added to the site.
NPR's Fresh Air has a review of the new record from rock critic Ken Tucker, an editor-at-large for Entertainment Weekly, who asks: "Am I the only one who still gets goose-bumps hearing Randy Newman stab at his piano and sing in that sly, slurry way of his? I hope not." He later concludes: "It sounds as if he's got a lot of genial bile left in him, which is pretty thrilling. Like I said at the top, goosebumps."
To listen to the review online, visit npr.org, where you'll also find the full, hour-long concert of the complete album Randy performed at Largo in Los Angeles and was first broadcast on NPR yesterday.
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The Village Voice's Ryan Foley calls Randy "a master of sardonic humor, be it subtle or slapstick," and asserts: "Harps and Angels is further proof." Even with the album's well-placed humor, Foley also finds that Randy "has never brought the listener into his confidence so deliberately" as he does on the new record. The reviewer concludes that Randy has "always been attracted to downtrodden folks and their vulnerabilities because he's ever-aware of his own. Despite a persistent spirit, Newman knows he's not immortal. But his music surely is."
The Voice reminds readers that Randy will be playing a show at Carnegie Hall on September 19, and "It will be awesome." Read more at villagevoice.com.
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"[W]hen Randy Newman decides to finally release the pause button on his songwriting career," writes Paste magazine's Rob O'Connor, " I know I’ll find myself intrigued. Because Newman believes his songs should be about something. He likes concepts and characters. He doesn’t mind making people uncomfortable."
What's more, on the new album—"another fine Randy Newman album"—the songwriter includes himself among those people, says O'Connor:
On Harps and Angels, even Newman is kicked out of his comfort zone ... You don’t get Newman like this very often. His conscience is strong, but long ago it accepted mankind’s limits, which is where he finds his best material ... So many laugh-out-loud moments resonate beyond the punchline, and each new spin of the album reveals another.
To read the review, visit pastemagazine.com.
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USA Today has a feature on Randy, in which writer Edna Gunderson refers to him as a man who "crafts elaborate orchestral arrangements, creates gorgeous melodies, plays rolling R&B piano and writes savagely funny lyrics." You can read the article at usatoday.com.
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