Randy Newman Born Again CD

By the late-'70s, Newman had begun to take the contributions of his L.A. session musician buddies a little too seriously, allowing their smooth sound to dominate his records instead of providing a foil to his unconventional compositions. Here and on subsequent albums, Newman's songs fight a tug-of-war with the arrangements. Fortunately, the songs on BORN AGAIN are strong enough to stand up to anything this side of Arif Mardin. Newman is in rare ironic form from the get-go, with the unapologetic capitalist anthem "It's Money That I Love." The ominous "Pretty Boy" unsentimentally examines xenophobia and bully psychology (and is the obvious role model for Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing." The anti-homophobe shaggy dog story of "Half a Man" harks back to Newman's GOOD OLD BOYS days. Song for song, BORN AGAIN is among the best of Newman's latter-day works.

Recorded at Warner Brothers Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California & A&M Records, Hollywood, California.

Personnel: Randy Newman (vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes); Waddy Watchel, Buzzy Feiten (guitar); Chuck Findley, Tom Scott (horns); Victor Feldman (Fender Rhodes, drums, percussion); Michael Boddicker (synthesizer); David Shields, Willie Weeks (bass); Andy Newmark (drums); Lenny Castro, Larry Castro, Carlos Vega (percussion); Stephen Bishop, Valerie Carter, Arno Lucas (background vocals).

Engineers: Tom Knox, Lee Herschberg, Ken Deane.

Q (7/93, p.111) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...An LP that's as wicked a blend of poignancy and pungency as any other in his catalogue. In the songs upon it he draws in fine lines a sardonic tableau...Yet compassion is Newman's signal virtue, often so well disguised as to be entirely overlooked..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/00, p.116) - "...plaintive piano'n'voice gems amongst stodgy LA rock...while his occasional orchestral writing remains beautiful..."