Pamela Springsteen
Pamela Springsteen
Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson
News
- Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Australian: Randy Newman's "Harps and Angels" Is "Testimony to His Craft"
Randy Newman's Harps and Angels has already garnered acclaim from critics across North America and Europe, and new praise now comes from The Australian, which calls him "the crown prince" of his musical form, the new album "testimony to his craft," and its songs "so vibrant, musically and lyrically, ... that his catalogue would seem incomplete without them." All About Jazz says the new album shows that Randy "just keeps on getting better," and Paste calls him "one of America’s most important songwriters," while Slate credits the "uproarious" song "Korean Parents" with offering "a more enjoyable way forward" in the highly charged discussion of satire and race.
- Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Rolling Stone: Newman's New Album "A Welcome Return to Form" for "One of the Greatest Songwriters of the Rock Era"
Randy Newman recently spoke with Rolling Stone for a feature article in the September 4 issue, in which Harps and Angels, Randy's first album in nine years, is described as "a welcome return to form for Newman, one of the greatest songwriters of the rock era—though his songs rarely rock and often have more in common with Tin Pan Alley and show tunes."
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."
Releases
On Tour
- September 16, 2008Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY
- September 19, 2008 – 08:00 pmStern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
- September 20, 2008Convocation Hall, Toronto,
- September 21, 2008Symphony Hall, Boston, NY
- September 24, 2008Strathmore Music Center, Bethesda, MD
- September 26, 2008The Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA