*** Randy Newman

BAD LOVE

(DreamWorks)

Randy Newman has always struck a fine balance between the surly neurosis of a satirist and the near-maudlin sentimentality of a show-biz scion, and his new release shows that, at age 55, the full range is still intact. Notwithstanding that the irony he pioneered has become the lingua franca of pop culture, he can still be biting -- as on "I'm Dead," where he assumes the persona of a rock version of Archie Rice (the aging and wretched music-hall performer played by Olivier in The Entertainer) confessing that "each record that I make/Is like a record that I've made/Only not as good," or on "My Country," which depicts a nation of emotionally frozen TV addicts. Somewhat less impressive are "The Great Nations of Europe" and "The World Isn't Fair," obvious if accurate poly-sci complaints delivered in an unengaging kind of Broadway sprechstimme. But the flip side -- the melancholy love songs -- are uniformly good, with "I Miss You" and "Better Off Dead" mining a vein of melancholy regret. This is a worthy addition to the canon, and though it may all sound pretty familiar by now, Newman shows that, unlike his "I'm Dead" protagonist, he still has a few things to say.

-- Richard C. Walls