Simple Music

IF THERE'S ONE CHARACTERISTIC that runs through Randy Newman's latest release, "Little Criminals," it's simplicity. In today's world, simplicity is usually a welcome addition to any venture, but in "Little Criminals" the marked lack of complexity quickly translates into boredom. Newman's latest effort, for the most part, doesn't have the necessary ingredients for the great block-buster cult album that his fans may be looking for.

At first glance, the record jacket gives the impression that its contents are very sophisticated. Randy Newman is peering into the camera, from behind sunglasses, on a bridge over some (presumably) Los Angeles freeway. He looks like an artist, with his hair mussed up and his well-worn clothing. So far, so good. But it's that back of the jacket that's the real killer--it contains the words to all the songs on the record within. The words of one verse are:

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

Come what may,

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

I'm gonna take you away, away.

This doesn't sound like tha same person who wrote the Three Dog Night hit "Mama Told Me Not to Come."

Without a doubt, the best song on the album is "Short People," which has been getting a lot of air time on the radio lately. It's also the first song on the record and sets a standard that most of the other cuts can't compete with. Newman has some great insights about short people and communicates them with his own balanced view. His first lines are:

Short people got no reason

Short people got no reason

Short people got no reason

To live.

Right away he's made a hit with all of his fans who are jockeys. And Newman has some very good reasons why short people shouldn't be alive:

They got little hands

And little eyes

And they walk around

Tellin' great big lies.

They got little noses.

And tiny little teech.

They wear platform shoes

On their nasty little feet.

With these amusing lyrics, "Short People" comes off very well, even though the music is very simple and repetitive.

But simple, repetitive music doesn't work when the lyrics are lacking. The title song, "Little Criminals," carries a very simple tune and a very simple story about a junkie who proposes to rob a gas station.

Got a gun from Uncle Freddy

Got a station all picked out

Got a plan and now we're ready

Gonna take that station out.

Those lyrics might have been able to make it with another tune but, paired with incessant piano chords, the song falls flat.

"Texas Girl at the Funeral of her Father" is the only lament on the album. Newman pulls it off pretty well, despite the cheesy beginning, complete with violins. This song stands out because it is much slower than most of the other songs on the album and because the words and the music go together well.

Newman gets some help from the Eagles in "Rider in the Rain," in which Don Henly, Glen Frey, and J.D. Souther sing background vocals. As a result this ballad sounds very much like an Eagles tune, except that raspy-voiced Newman sings the lead and the lyrics sound like they were written from a rhyming dictionary, with little regard for meaning:

Used to work in Uncle's feed store

While he was fightin' in the war

Now, I'm going to Arizona

With a banjo on my knee.

Newman has trouble with his nonsensical lyrics, as in "Sigmund Freud's Impersonation of Albert Einstein in America." This song could be very funny, but it's not. Again, the rhymes don't come off, they just seem silly:

America, America

Step out into the light

You're the best dream man has ever dreamed

And may all your Christmasses be white.

"Little Criminals" is very uneven, with most of the unevenness apparent on the low side of the scale. For the most part, Newman's simplicity is underwhelming.