Recorded and released within (what was for Newman) a frantic two years of its predecessor, Born Again stands as his quickest follow-up album and served as a reminder for most critics and fans that quality albums are worth the wait. Later described by Newman himself as "a no-feelings album -- a comedy record," Born Again continued to refine the smooth production values and L.A. studio sound of Little Criminals.
Opening with the caustic lines "I don't love the mountains/And I don't love the sea/And I don't love Jesus/He never done a thing for me," "It's Money That I Love" initially sounds custom-made to generate another "Short People"-style ruckus; on closer listen, this rollicking shuffle holds up better -- with some determinedly unapologetic lyrics: "Used to worry about the black man/Now I don't worry 'bout the Black man/Used to worry about the starving children of India/Know what I say now about the starving childen in India?/I say, 'Oh, mama'.."
The song suggested that a middle-ground could exist where Newman's keener lyrics could work with his new harder-edged pop sound -- but with some minor exceptions, the album failed to deliver on the premise: for the first time, Newman's victims (a businessman in"Mr. Sheep," thugs, gangsters and agents in "Pretty Boy" and "Spies," homosexuals in "Half A Man") are presented so predictably and unimaginatively that listeners may be inclined to root for the various bigots the artist is ridiculing (another agenda which can't be fully discounted). Still, Newman's narrative conscience seems deliberately watered down here.
The album's anthemic album closer, "Pants," is a prime example of Newman's new attitude: the mock-sensationalistic lyrics ("Gonna take off my pants/And your mama can't stop me/..And the police can't stop me/No one can stop me/.. The president can't stop me!") - were they simply a joke about personal power and freedom or was Newman catering to a new, younger audience that would find such lyrics 'outrageous'? Or was it all just a backhanded comment on the banal level he was now espected to write at -- a subtle gnawing at the indiscriminant pop hand that now fed him? The artist was making it hard to read between the lines.
In a 1979 interview with Timothy White for Rolling Stone, Newman elaborated on his approach to writing at the time: "My music has a high irritation factor. You can't put it on..and invite the neighbors over for a barbecue. It's got 'prick' and 'wop' in it, and 'I'm gonna take off my pants.' I entertain." More distressing than Newman's perversely smug attitude here (his songs have never been "barbecue-friendly") is his simplistic equating of "offensive" song lyrics with "entertainment": in previous songs, even his use of a word like 'fuck' served the greater purpose of framing a song character -- his objective was not to titilate his audience.
Newman, later in White's 1979 interview: "I don't want to be a bad guy, but if I am a bad guy, I don't want it to show up in my work, because my work means too much to me. I finally know that I'm going to be a writer all my life in some sort of way. It's more important to me than my family or anything else. It's bullshit if I say that anything means more to me, 'cause none of it does."
The albums few honest moments come when Newman's guard seems down: a brief sketch about a tobacco farmer who moves to Omaha, "William Brown" ("And he didn't mind the dust/And he didn't mind the wind/..And he never missed home"), the self-deprecating "Girls In My Life (Part 1)," the beautifully melodic "Ghosts," and an completely left field grilling of/tribute to the Electric Light Orchestra in "The Story Of A Rock And Roll Band" ("I love their 'Mr. Blue Sky'/Almost my favorite is 'Turn To Stone'/And how 'bout 'Telephone Line'?/I love that ELO").
Born Again 's outtakes include "Interiors," a song inspired by the Woody Allen movie of the same name, per Newman: "I hated that movie so much I wanted to make some bullshit use of it." The brief song is an odd, moody "joke" -- an intentionally bad one. Lyrics for "Humpty Dumpty," "My Boy," and "Red Handed," and "Golden Eyes," four other songs from this period, also exist in Newman's collection.
Randy also contributed moody synthesizer backing to "The Last Chance Texaco," from Ricki Lee Jones' superb Waronker-produced debut album in 1979.