Following close on the heels of Guilty, a 4-CD career retrospective, Bad Love offers darkness from every corner of Newman's personal Pandora's box. You'll hear sad tales from the songwriter himself ("I Miss You") and from a brilliant supporting cast -- the lecher ("Shame"), the historian ("Great Nations of Europe"), the fool ("I'm Dead") -- each character's voice as clear as if they'd stepped straight out of a novel. And while Newman's pop-music idiosyncrasy has always been the distance between the singer and the fictional narrators of his songs, with Bad Love, the distinction seems unimportant -- it's all lies, it's all hilarious, it's all sad, and it's all true.

Harold Check