All Music Guide - Mark Deming Nearly eight years after releasing The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1, in which one of America's finest and most distinctive songwriters revisited a handful of songs from his back catalog in elegant, austere new recordings, Newman has delivered the implied follow-up, in which he revisits 16 more tunes with just his own piano work accompanying his vocals. Unlike many veteran artists past official retirement age, Newman's skills as a performer haven't suffered a bit with the passage of time, and these new recordings sound fresh and immediate; while Newman has never had a traditionally "good" voice, his instrument sounds as strong as ever and he's even better at assuming his ...
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