that magnified the bizarre pathos at the surface of the songs while obscuring their deeper intentions. The second studio album, also produced by Waronker, was a stunningly executed change-of-pace, showcasing the bitter ironist in a new guise–that of the consummate rock-and-roller. Then came Randy Newman/Live, on which Newman sang many of the songs from the first two albums with only his own piano accompaniment. Except for those songs recorded on Nilsson Sings Newman (Newman was pianist), it was the first time one was able to approach Newman's songs as straight compositions and to detect the sensibility of a minimal artist at work.

Sail Away comprises 12 songs, all of them written, sung, and arranged by Newman. (Two songs–"Last Night I Had a Dream" and "Lonely At the Top"–are on the Live album in different versions.) Sail Away is Newman's most mature album, a work of genius. Though Newman returned to the studio to make it, the album has much the same stark quality as the Live album, for the arrangements, so admirably restrained, consistently serve the songs rather than themselves. As both musician and poet, Newman juggles many elements, creating a collection of miniature, spare collages that form an ambiguous whole.

The special triumph of Sail Away is the coming to the fore of Newman, the supreme humanist and metaphysician, uttering blunt epiphanies that cut to the quick. Newman's mastery of juxtaposition and irony is used to expose with clarity and emotional force his own brooding agnosticism, rooted in a complex struggle between the absurd and the tragic. At times, too, he seems to speak for America itself, voicing both its deepest longing and disappointment.

The best songs on the album treat these themes in the loftiest terms. Laced with Newman's characteristic irony, they nevertheless confront their subjects immediately, state them with the utmost terseness, and then simply end. Not a word or a note is wasted. It is a dazzling demonstration of the concept that less is more if it's just enough.

Although there is not a disappointing cut on the album, three songs stand out as especially magnificent. The title cut, which begins the album, is an austere ballad that carries a lovely string arrangement over a rolling, recurrent piano motif. While the music gently soars, Newman describes the American dream