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Song of the Day #1,151: ‘Sail Away’ – Randy Newman

Best Songwriters – #5 – Randy Newman

A couple of months ago I dedicated three weeks to the music of Randy Newman, concentrating in turn on his sincere songs, his caustic songs and his songs for Disney films. The point was that this man can do wildly different things equally well.

But Newman’s versatility isn’t what lands him in the top half of my list of favorite songwriters (despite my owning only five of his albums). No, it is his scathing satirical wit and his uncompromising ability to bring the most unsympathetic characters to life. Newman has a novelist’s gift set to blues pop infused with the soul of New Orleans jazz.

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Song of the Day #1,150: ‘Camouflage’ – Brad Paisley

A couple of times in recent months I’ve made an analogy between country music and big-screen comedies. Both are under-appreciated due to a perceived lack of sophistication and desire to appeal to the common denominator.

What’s the last Oscar-winning movie about which you could say, “Well, I really had a great time watching that!”? I enjoyed The King’s Speech, The Hurt Locker and Slumdog Millionaire as much as the next person but I’m not going to throw any of them into my DVD player when I want to lean back and laugh for two hours.

Brad Paisley writes crowd-pleasing music. His CDs should come with a bucket of popcorn. Sure, he’s recorded his share of tear-jerkers, in the traditional country fashion, but primarily he’s out to entertain.

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Song of the Day #1,149: ‘Remind Me’ – Brad Paisley (with Carrie Underwood)

It’s always interesting to see what an artist comes up with after you’ve discovered him. In each discography, I look at two touchstone albums — the one that marks my first exposure to the artist and the first one that I heard right along with everybody else.

American Saturday Night was my intro disc for Brad Paisley, and (as intro albums often do) it remains my favorite of his records. But once I’d spent the time and money to catch up on everything else he’d recorded, would his first new album live up to expectations?

I’ll admit, when I first heard the title of Paisley’s newest album, This is Country Music, and his intention to back off from the expansiveness of American Saturday Night, I was a bit worried. Would this album lean more toward the sort of country music I still find tiresome, rather than the clever, winning Brad Paisley music I love so much?

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Song of the Day #1,148: ‘Little Sister’ – Rufus Wainwright

Best Songwriters – #6 – Rufus Wainwright

I went back and forth several times between including Rufus Wainwright in my top five songwriters and leaving him at #6. Ultimately I went with this placement for reasons I’ll get into next week, but it was a hard decision. Part of me agrees with Elton John’s assessment of Wainwright as “the greatest songwriter on the planet.”

Hyperbole aside, it’s hard to deny the writing chops of a man whose pop music is influenced by Chopin and Puccini as well as The Beatles and his folk singing father, Loudon Wainwright III. Rufus Wainwright brings a theatrical sensibility to his music that simply isn’t approached by anybody else working today. He is a fascinating blend of classic and modern styles and attitudes.

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Song of the Day #1,147: ‘Not About Love’ – Fiona Apple

Best Songwriters – #7 – Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple is by far the least prolific songwriter on this list, having released only three albums over the past 15 years, and no one-offs, EPs, original B-sides or any of that. She has written (or at least released) a grand total of 32 songs.

Yet she finds herself at #7 on my list of favorite songwriters, a testament to the greatness of those 32 songs. If only she’d muster up the will to get back in the studio, she might climb into the top five.

Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that Apple earned her spot on this list thanks to the 22 songs on her last two albums, When the Pawn… and Extraordinary Machine. While I am a fan of her debut, Tidal, it is a less confident and mature record than its successors — not surprising, considering she was 18 when it was released.

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