An A+ Album: Randy Newman, 12 Songs

Truth in advertising.

I'd taken some time off from blogging for a few reasons, one of which has to do with my choice of album. I've listened to it several times and still am not sure how to write about it, but finally I decided to just dive in, prodded by some recent news about the artist.

THE BASIC DETAILS
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: 12 Songs
Label: Reprise
Release Year: 1970
Length: 29:51
Producer: Lenny Waronker

What the songs on this album might compel you to do: Move to Los Angeles and wish it were still 1970; spend the rest of the day wearing an in-the-know smirk; wonder when the cast of Toy Story is going to show up.

CHRISTGAU AND THE ALBUM
What does the Dean of American Rock Critics have to say?

As a rule, American songwriting is banal, prolix, and virtually solipsistic when it wants to be honest, merely banal when it doesn't. Newman's truisms--always concise, never confessional--are his own. Speaking through recognizable American grotesques, he comments here on the generation gap (doomed), incendiary violence (fucked up but sexy), male and female (he identifies with the males, most of whom are losers and weirdos), racism (he's against it, but he knows its seductive power), and alienation (he's for it). Newman's music counterposes his indolent drawl--the voice of a Jewish kid from L.A. who grew up on Fats Domino--against an array of instrumental settings that on this record range from rock to bottleneck to various shades of jazz. And because his lyrics abjure metaphor and his music recalls commonplaces without repeating them, he can get away with the kind of calculated effects that destroy more straightforward meaning-mongers. A perfect album. A+

How many words is that? 152.

What are your favorite words or phrases? "banal, prolix, and virtually solipsistic"; "fucked up but sexy"; "straightforward meaning-mongers"; "A perfect album"

How does the A+ grade compare with other albums from the artist?
Christgau likes the Randy Newman. Two later albums don't receive letter grades, but Newman scored four A's, two A-'s, 3 B+'s, and a B. If only my college transcript were as good.

ANY OTHER NOTABLE INFO?

Christgau Fancy Word of the Day: Abjure

I'd never abjure Lee Remick.

One of several features I plan to include in this blog is the Christgau Word of the Day. (No, I don't plan on having a Christgau Word of the Day every day.)

The point of this feature is to find words, usually those classified by the less-literate (like myself) as "S.A.T. words" (regardless of whether they would actually appear on an S.A.T. exam), that Christgau uses and which might be one reason his reviews infuriate so many people.

Today's word, which I picked from the top of a list of the "Top 250 Most Difficult SAT Words," is abjure.

Check out that list of synonyms. All of them would probably qualify as "fancy words" in a music review. Just the idea of "solemnly renouncing" puts you in the context of a Radiohead or a Coldplay, not a Miley Cyrus.

I don't think I've ever used abjure in writing or in conversation, and I think if I started whipping it out at work or at parties, I'd probably receive blank stares or punches in the face:

• "Ted, I abjure your ideas regarding search-engine optimization of the company website."
• "Darling, I abjure the notion that 'reverse cowgirl' is the way to go, this evening." 

Because it's a solemn action, abjuring sounds like a kind way of disagreeing with someone.

• Abjuring: "After careful consideration of all the facts, it is with a heavy heart that I conclude that cookies made with butter are in fact superior to cookies made with butter."
• Not abjuring: "You. Are. Fucking. WRONG!"