Pamela Springsteen
Pamela Springsteen
Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson
News
- Monday, January 5, 2009
Nonesuch Artists Continue to Draw Year-End Accolades
Since the last Nonesuch Journal entry of 2008, which laid out scores of year-end best-of lists featuring Nonesuch albums and artists, still more critical praise has come in placing this music among the year's best.
- Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Nonesuch Albums Abound in Year-End Best Lists
While 2008 may go down as one of the more turbulent years in recent (or distant) memory, or, more optimistically, a time of change, there is much to celebrate in the year in music. Nonesuch artists across all genres have contributed to that and, accordingly, have made their way onto many critics' lists of the year's best. For the final Nonesuch Journal article of the year, we offer an overview of just some of that year-end critical praise.
About Randy Newman
The recipient of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Song, 17 Oscar nominations, five Grammy awards, and 13 Grammy nominations, Newman is a singular figure who over the course of his career has explored various styles and sounds of the canon of 20th-century American music.
A Los Angeles native, Randy Newman became famous during the 1960s and '70s for writing quirky, darkly funny, or sharply satirical songs detailing the lives of characters of his own making. This idiosyncratic style alternated between sweeping cinematic pop and rolling R&B, a style heavily influenced by time spent in New Orleans during his youth. Beginning with his eponymous debut album in 1968, Newman’s solo records have been widely acclaimed, and his film composing took flight with Ragtime, directed by Milos Forman. He has since been involved with numerous film scores, and has received a total of fourteen Oscar nominations, for films like The Natural, Avalon, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and Monsters, Inc., among others.
Harps and Angels, released in August 2008, is Newman’s first album of new material on Nonesuch Records and second Nonesuch release following 2003’s Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1,
which celebrated some of Newman’s best-known work in solo performances by the songwriter at the piano.
Latest Release
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Harps and Angels
August 5, 2008Newman's first all-new studio recording in nine years incorporates both the scathingly satirical and the unabashedly tender. Variety says the album finds Randy "at the height of his powers," and Time Out New York's six-star review says the "outstanding album ... confirms his place among our best living songwriters."
