The Dreamtime of American life has been mapped out with loving delicacy and accuracy by Randy Newman during his career. His circus of characters, his small-ads style absurdities, his prompt wit have created an alternative vista of the United States. In 'Land Of Dreams' he corrals his lovable failures once more with his polite cynicism in full working order.

Side two courts the latest misfits in their latest incarnations. There is Newman's favourite redneck ("I say we ain't gotta do nothin' for nobody"), his mindless hick ("If you can believe/in something bigger than yourself/You can follow the flag forever"'), his greedy bastard ("It's money that matters"). Best of all are a ridiculous rap rip-off, the tale of Masterman and Baby J ("When we get on the mike we'll be number one/Even top DMC and Run") and 'Red Bandana', a rock splurge of sustained vulgarity that has folk like Jeff Porcaro on drums and James Newton Howard on synths - do these people not realise when they are having the piss kicked out of them?, and a song likely to ascend to the pinnacle of the Newman canon. 'I Want You To Hurt Like I Do' is one of these songs that uncovers a hideous human truth, a coruscating weakness of the psyche, with bland confidence and delivery, thus making it all the more acute. It is Randy Newman at his very best: wry, cruel and unsentimental in a three-minute sermon.

Side one is autobiographical with six songs that take us through Newman's childhood and adolescence. As usual he can't take anything seriously and he certainly isn't going to start taking himself seriously now. On tunes like 'Four Eyes' he dresses an off-to-school skit in hideous hard-rock upholster, thus ensuring that he gets a shot of F.M. action while satirising the whole stupidity of the thing at the same time. It's a typically smart move from this cutest of tunesmiths.

Nobody does this sort of thing the way Randy Newman does. An artist. A true star.