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Harps & Angels | 
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| Artist: Randy Newman
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $8.85
You Save: $10.13 (53%)
New (51) Used (13) from $8.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.3
MPN: 122812
UPC: 075597998931
EAN: 0075597998931
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Tracks:
| • | Harps and Angels | | • | Losing You | | • | Laugh and Be Happy | | • | A Few Words | | • | A Piece of the Pie | | • | Easy Street (3:14) | | • | Korean Parents | | • | Only a Girl | | • | Potholes | | • | Feels Like Home |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Randy Newman's first studio album of all new material in nearly a decade is, by turns, hilarious, poignant and scathingly satirical. Harps and Angels often has an easy going Crescent City feel, with Newman on piano fronting a small combo and revealing, as Rolling Stone put it after the Carnegie Hall show, his serious love and study of the New Orleans piano tradition.
Album Description
Randy Newman's 2008 studio album titled Harps and Angels. Produced by Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker, it contains seven new songs and three updated versions of previously released songs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Well Worth the Wait August 18, 2008
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
My friend Pris and I saw Randy at Carnegie Hall two winter's back, and we were both slavering in antipation about this release. Well...Randy kept us slavering long enuff...now is the time to assess the wait...
was it worth it, Newman fans?
Aye Aye! Eye Eye!
All new songs...new songbook to add to the classics...every song a gem...
kudos to Randy and his producer for keepin' things under wraps for two years,,
it's a demarcation line for a talent that has never lost his song writing luster or uncanny ability to come up with a lyric that is entirely original...New Orleans roots shine through...
The quiet sarcasm is also evident..nothing heavy handed...he delivers the goods without a trace of rancor...
The best songmeister still standing...
Lonely at the top?
Mebbe, but Randy..you da gent!!
BEK
Feels Like Randy Newman Is Back Where He Belongs August 5, 2008
18 out of 57 found this review helpful
"Connoisseurs covet Randy Newman's Seventies work, when he emerged as one of the most cutting and empathic of American singer-songwriters. So his return to political-minded material is reason to wrap yourself in the flag and cheer." Will Hermes
Randy Newman in the first line of the first song of his latest CD 'Harps & Angels" asks "Hasn't anybody seen me lately?" Yes, Randy we have, and we love ya, but we have been waiting for this studio CD for nine years. Hallelujah, I Just Love Him So! Most of the critical reviews of this new CD are positively positive. A mixed bag, so to speak of Randy's best. He goes back to his New Orleans, Dixieland roots in this CD, a most personal journey. Some have called this CD a little black, but I call it a rainbow. It has something for everyone. Political, bruised Patriotic wit, mixed in with a peculiar immigration policy. He is vexed and grateful that he can still provoke us. One critic called this CD whimsy and that term suits this CD to a "T". It is glorious and bleak, happy and showy, thoughtful, full of irony and humorous. And, above, all Randy Newman intones an achingly beautiful ballad, 'Feels Like Home'. Try to listen to Randy croon this tune without tears coming to your eyes. Is this a love song to a person or to his country? Funny, rueful and simple, Randy Newman sings this tune straight.
"If you knew how lonely my life has been
And how long I've been so alone
And if you knew how I wanted someone to come along
And change my life the way you've done
It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from
It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong."
Randy Newman is at his best when he is playing his music in a concert before a room of adoring fans. And, that is exactly the feel of this CD. Whether we came to Randy Newman because of his film scores or because of a love for his satires, political or not, you will not be disappointed. Randy sings to us in these ten songs of a loss of our American country as we knew it. The present administration may not be as bad as Cesar or Stalin, but its the worst we have seen. We have hope, we are not dead nor dying, in fact we have much to do. Randy throws us a Dixieland curve and sings of loss of a love, finding of a new love, the waste of memory on old age, the loss of deliverance of Patriotism by Jackson Browne and I like Jackosn Browne, the story of immigrants and how those of us living in the richest country in the world should expect more. And, then, finally Home, "Feels Like Home', one of the loveliest of songs. It has become my favorite and will certainly become a cover for every romantic singer.
Randy Newman moves from Tom Lehrer to Tom Waits. He may sound full of despair at times, but his soul searching moves on to love, joy and hope.
Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 08-05-08
Randy Newman Anthology
Randy Newman Anthology, Vol. 2 (Music for Film, Television and Theater)
Sail Away
The Mark Twain of Music Returns Triumphant! August 12, 2008
7 out of 15 found this review helpful
I really hope that "Harps and Angels" gets "album of the year". What else is out there but either decent composing without decent lyrics or the inverse of that... or worse, all the godawful hip-hop that has neither. I laughed and I cried listening to this album. I really did. What else could you want from something that could be called "great". The title track is so "Randy" that it made me smile as it started up. "Losing You" came in as a wonderful chaser to give you a gulp in your throat. Then the flow of comedy and biting wit rolls across the landscape of unfairness and tragedy... all seen through the thick glasses of this innocent bystander... who admittedly claims not to be so innocent.
OK, we're done. Right? No sir. He then punctuates the album with--not only one of his greatest songs ever--but one of ANYONE'S greatest songs ever: "Feels Like Home". I first heard this tune as an outtake demo on his box set almost 10 years ago (Bonnie Raitt sang it on his "Faust" album). You know the man is cynical--so when he DOES say something sweet--you tend to believe him more (Ben Folds is carrying this tradition forward). So I was thrilled to see him wear it on his sleeve finally; not hiding his most emotional outpouring behind the veil of another artist covering it.
I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong it that), but I love you Randy Newman. Thank you for all these wonderful songs. And when I compared you to the great genius Mark Twain, I meant it.
Rave On, Randy! August 5, 2008
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
How does Randy Newman consistently do this? You know what I'm talking about, presenting the most complex artistry in the most easily accessible manner.
These three-minute verses project more weight than 90 percent of what Hollywood turns out in two-hour movies or musical styles than Broadway does in 90-minute soundtracks. How, indeed!
Let's start with the lyrics. Yes, Mr. Newman is truly music's poet laureate, the person who displays the most superb satirical wit being produced in any art form today. It'd be near-criminal to destroy the delicate -- albeit twisted -- lyric surprises present in "Harps And Angels," "Potholes," "Only A Girl," or "A Piece Of The Pie" by analyzing the content here. Simply know they're unsurpassed by anything in Mr. Newman's formidable career.
About the music: well, Mr. Newman's verse matches the musical rhythms precisely. Or is that vice versa? This stuff is an entirely new genre. Yes sir. It's blues; it's ragtime; it's Broadway; it's rock; it's imaginativeasallhell!
The only possible complaint will be the deceptively short length, about 35 minutes. My mama always told me the price of a masterpeice painting isn't determined by inches. Same here. Don't judge its value on the minutes, but rather the scope of talent that approaches infinity.
If you do that, your conclusion will be same as mine: this is the best CD of 2008 thus far and will be damn-difficult to beat in the last few months.
Rave on, Randy!
This is a fun and interesting disc by Randy Newman August 5, 2008
10 out of 45 found this review helpful
I love the music of Randy Newman. Every track on this disc is great. He is a good singer and one of the best piano players I've ever heard. "Harps and Angels" is Newman's idea of what he imagines heaven will be like. "Easy Street" is a tribute to the city of New Orleans. "Laugh and Be Happy" is a very fun song. Newman makes the piano come alive with exuberant playing here. I love the asian sound of "Korean Parents". This is such a funny song. "A Piece Of The Pie" is Newman's take on the shrinking of the middle class. "A Few Words In Defense Our Country" is a song about how our political leaders today are not as bad as previous leaders from foreign countries. This is a very interesting song. "Feels Like Home" and "Losing You" are heartfelt touching tracks. I love this new disc from Randy Newman.
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