MacGuffin Pop

By Zeth Lundy

Randy Newman's latest Academy Award nomination makes it easy to forget how truly deceptive his songwriting really is. His music, which rarely wanders far from New Orleans R&B, ragtime, or Brill Building pop, is the stuff of familiarity and comfort, an unassuming foundation of Americana into which subversive (confrontational, even) ideas can be planted. [23 February 2007]

Randy Newman: Harps and Angels

By Ron Hart

The bard of piano pop makes a triumphant return to songwriting with a scathingly political album that makes the new Nas album sound like a campaign PSA for John McCain. [5 August 2008]

Randy Newman pops up again with first new album in nine years [24 September 2008]