Newman,randy - Born Again Price: €9.99 Availability: Immediate Dispatch Special Offer: 3 For €20

By the late-'70s, Newman had begun to take the contributions of his L.A. session musician buddies a little too seriously, allowing their smooth sound to dominate his records instead of providing a foil to his unconventional compositions. Here and on subsequent albums, Newman's songs fight a tug-of-war with the arrangements. Fortunately, the songs on BORN AGAIN are strong enough to stand up to anything this side of Arif Mardin. Newman is in rare ironic form from the get-go, with the unapologetic capitalist anthem "It's Money That I Love". The ominous "Pretty Boy" unsentimentally examines xenophobia and bully psychology (and is the obvious role model for Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing". The anti-homophobe shaggy dog story of "Half a Man" harks back to Newman's GOOD OLD BOYS days. Song for song, BORN AGAIN is among the best of Newman's latter-day works.