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Randy Newman - Land of Dreams Audio CD

A fair review of the Randy Newman "Land of Dreams" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Randy Newman reviews here, or go back to the Randy Newman tabs.

Randy Newman Band: Randy Newman
Title: Land of Dreams
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dixie Flyer 2: New Orleans Wins the War 3: Four Eyes 4: Falling in Love 5: Something Special 6: Bad News from Home 7: Roll with the Punches 8: Masterman and Baby J 9: Red Bandana 10: Follow the Flag 11: It's Money That Matters 12: I Want You to Hurt Like I Do

Nearly perfect album
And I mean no disrespect to Sail Away. This album is a true masterpiece. What can I say - Randy Newman has created multiple masterpieces. :-)

My only reservation is that Four Eyes seems a little off-peak. Ah well, everyone's a critic.


Yes, one of the great ones
W. I can't really add a lot to R. Rasband's pithy lead-off review here: a masterpiece. "Land of Dreams"' only competition among Newman's oeuvre for top o' the heap is "Good Old Boys," also a masterpiece. But time and ambition distinguish the two: 1974's "Good Old Boys" is (mostly) a coherent song cycle exploring the soul, psyche and politics of the American South, written against the grain of the '60s counterculture's reflexive disdain for the region (see Neil Young's 'Southern Man. ')

"Land of Dreams" (1988) is a more various project, yet unlike Newman's first great record (1972's "Sail Away"), it manages to sound like more than just a collection of excellent songs. I think that coherence flows from two things: the unflagging, master-at-the-top-of-his-game brilliance of the whole record, and a new approach to songwriting. On "Good Old Boys" and elsewhere, Newman had almost always written through the personas of imagined characters, but here he sometimes lets down his guard to write straight out of his own life and concerns, which gives "Land of Dreams" a new, lively energy. Actually, only the first two songs are (playfully reimagined) autobiography, about Newman's seminal childhood stay with relatives in New Orleans. But even fictionally-narrated numbers like 'It's Money That Matters' and 'I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do' feel very close to the personal bone.

Indeed, after "Land of Dreams" Newman's work became more often transparently autobiographical--see his latest release, "Harps and Angels"--and I'm not sure that has always served the songs. "Land of Dreams" hits the sweet spot: It benefits both from the formal rigor and ambitiousness of the best earlier work, and from a newfound vein of more confident, personal expressiveness.

A great record.


.


A square hipster beyond reproach
I didn't like him when I was young, however I have grown an appreciation for him today that borders on him being one of my favourite artists. I'm glad that when it comes to Randy Newman and his music, I was, am, and will always be considered blind as a bat. So, while it's safe to say I'm in my own little world in not trying to "know" what his best is supposed to be, or what I "should" like, this release completely took me by the third listen. It's songwriting that only a handfull of folks could write. I'm still new in his catalogue (I'm listening to the 3 or 4 mediocre rated discs) I'm finding that it could get scary if it continues to get much better than this. I also know that it is going to get better. This good old boy is too smart for the masses.


A really solid album

This is a really good album, nearly as good as "12 Songs" and "Sail Away", there isn't a lot of bad Newman when you get right down to it. If you are listener of NPR, parts of this album tend to pop up from time to time as in-between type music.
If you search youtube, there is a terrific performance of "I want You to Hurt like I do". He introduces it as a take off on "We are the World" but if you listen to the song, he could easily be singing from his heart, and this is what it sounds like, as if he is confessing up to the fact that he is not so perfect and is trying to warn you (and it also could be read as him talking about his music which has never been all that rosey or even both ways at the same time).

On a side note, if you are a Newman fan be sure and check out "Vinestreet" which is a collection of his early songwriting credits by other performers. Be sure to also look at "Nilsson Sings Newman" which has always been a favorite album of min, it has a unrecorded song by Newman called "Snow" (though Claudet also recorded it) that is on the CD as an extra track. Newman played piano on this album, and it is a beautiful little album. "Nilsson Sings Newman" has gotten nowhere near the credit it deserves, almost a perfect little album. .


Excellent
This is an late 80's album of MEMORABLE songs, craftily done by an American master.
I'm not a Newman expert but here goes anyway. Some great, some good. I love it as it was my introduction to Randy Newman and it holds up well.

Lots of good stuff here, but if the entire album was just the haunting piano and rhythm section riff from "Dixie Flyer", I would be just as satisfied.


You can see a complete list of all Randy Newman discography, or go back to the Randy Newman tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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