Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Randy Newman
Randy Newman
(Reprise, 1968)
Ex-Brill Building employee recruits 70-piece orchestra for stunning 28-minute debut…
This week is 1968 Week on MOJO, and every Disc Of The Day will reflect that theme.
It would take several years before Randy Newman hit a noticeable level of commercial success, but it’s worth remembering that the key ingredients of the Angeleno’s whip-smart oeuvre can all be found on this startlingly ambitious debut. The piano man’s pithy takes on the wonder and woe of life in America begin immediately. Witness opener Love Story (You And Me), where he crushes his tableau of relationship bliss with such wickedly sarcastic vignettes as: “We’ll have a kid / Or maybe we’ll rent one / He’s got to be straight / We don’t want a bent one”. Matching Newman’s erudite lyrics and distinctive drawl are his mammoth orchestral arrangements that, even for someone so well versed in Brill Building-expertise, are striking in their intricacy and poise. And then, of course, there’s the desolate I Think It’s Going To Rain Today – an astonishing recording of his oft-covered ballad that’s guaranteed to chill you to the core on every listen.
Ross Bennett
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 08/03/2008
Further Listening
Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon (Asylum, 1976)
Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle (Warners, 1968)
Rufus Wainwright – Rufus Wainwright (Dreamworks, 1998)
What’s YOUR favourite 1968 album? Enlighten us below...
Previous Disc of the day
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Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
6:00 AM GMT 18/03/2010
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The Pop Group - Y
For connoisseurs of pop-as-rupture-in-the-space/time-continuum
6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
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