BAD LOVE [RANDY NEWMAN]

Not counting orchestral soundtrack albums and the guest-filled theater piece FAUST, BAD LOVE was the first album of Randy Newman songs in over a decade. As he moved into the '80s, Newman often blunted his lyrical wit with glossy L.A. overproduction, but with the help of '90s uberproducer Mitchell Froom, he's back on track here. Froom harnesses the power of Newman's piano and a full orchestra (who share the spotlight with a small band) for a sound that recalls Newman's early-'70s glory days.

Newman's famous irony and sarcasm are honed to a fine point here, but pointed more often at the singer than at the outside targets that filled his early albums. Newman's ironic streak is such that the listener becomes uneasy wondering how much distance exists between the composer and the unpleasant characters he portrays. On "Shame," he's a wealthy older man whose pleas to a younger, kept woman turn violent. "The World Isn't Fair" addresses Karl Marx directly in an attempt to reconcile the fall of socialist ideals with the prosperity of a liberal capitalist. Newman's lyrical prestidigitation would be for naught without his well-developed sense of humor and Gershwinesque melodic sensibility, which help make BAD LOVE such a powerful work.