12 Songs
Artist: Randy Newman
Community Score: 7.00

On his debut album, Randy Newman sounded as if he was still getting used to the notion of performing his own songs in the studio (despite years of cutting songwriting demos), but apparently he was a pretty quick study, and his second long-player, 12 Songs, was a striking step forward for Newman as a recording artist. While much of Randy Newman... Read More

Sail Away
Artist: Randy Newman
Community Score: 8.45

On his third studio album, Randy Newman found a middle ground between the heavily orchestrated pop of his debut and the more stripped-down, rock-oriented approach of 12 Songs, and managed to bring new strength to both sides of his musical personality in the process. The title track, which Newman has described as a sort of commercial jingle... Read More

Good Old Boys
Artist: Randy Newman
Community Score: 8.00

Randy Newman's songwriting often walks a narrow line between intelligent satire and willful cruelty, and that line was never finer than on the album Good Old Boys. Newman had long displayed a fascination with the American South, and Good Old Boys was a song cycle where he gave free reign to his most imaginative (and venomous) thoughts on the... Read More

Trouble in Paradise
Artist: Randy Newman

Randy Newman began the slow process of transforming himself into a polished L.A. song-crafter on the album Little Criminals, and with Trouble in Paradise the metamorphosis was complete; by this time, Newman could make a record just as ear-pleasing as anything Paul Simon, Don Henley, or Lindsey Buckingham could come up with, and proved it by... Read More

Gonna Take a Miracle
Artist: Laura Nyro

With the 1971 release Gonna Take a Miracle, pop composer and vocalist Laura Nyro completed her four-album/four-year deal for Columbia. Nyro's passion for R&B can be traced back to some of her earliest compositions, such as "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic" -- both of which were covered by the R&B vocal quintet the Fifth Dimension.... Read More

Manassas
Artist: Manassas
Community Score: 10.00

A sprawling masterpiece, akin to the Beatles' White Album, the Stones' Exile on Main St., or Wilco's Being There in its makeup, if not its sound. Rock, folk, blues, country, Latin, and bluegrass have all been styles touched on in Stephen Stills' career, and the skilled, energetic musicians he had gathered in Manassas played them all on this... Read More

Over the Rainbow
Artist: Livingston Taylor

Taylor's third recording for Capricorn was remastered and reissued in 1999. Though he began his career before brother James, and curtailed it early due to a psychiatric disorder, Livingston was obviously never as successful as his brother. It's hard to figure; his clear tenor is almost indistinguishable from his brother's, and even song... Read More

Retrospect
Artist: Randy Newman

To date, Warner Brothers in the U.S. has not released a compilation of Randy Newman's best work, but the U.K. division has, and here it is. From "Political Science" to "God's Song," these 16 songs should show any listener the depth of Randy Newman's talent as a songwriter and provide some big horse laughs along the way. ~ William Ruhlmann, All... Read More