For long term fans, of course, there's nothing here to blow your socks off apart from those wonderful songs and a wry performance that comes remarkably close to the ambience of having the man tinkling the ivories right there beside you in your living room or wherever you happen to be listening.
But, when it all comes down to it, it's all about the songs and after more than forty years hasn't he come up with some absolute crackers?
Lonely At The Top, God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind), Louisiana 1927, Living Without You, I Think It's Going to Rain Today, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Marie, Sail Away, The World Isn't Fair, Political Science and The Great Nations Of Europe…
And that's just the edited highlights of Volume 1...Of course, with those already done first time around, things drop off slightly for Volume 2, but there's still Dixie Flyer, the once lightweight but increasingly relevant Yellow Man, Losing You, My Life Is Good, Birmingham and Last Night I Had a Dream.
And it's not as if he doesn't have the material to make a decent third volume, and that's without Hughesy's long-hoped-for reworking of his earliest material, largely written for other voices.
He''s still got room for, say, Davy the Fat Boy, I Want Everybody to Like Me, Love Story, Mama Told Me Not To Come and Rider In The Rain for starters, and I'd love to hear what he could do revisiting I've Been Wrong Before, Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear and, most particularly, So Long Dad.
If you've already got the albums or the Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman box set, the two Songbooks might not seem essential, but if you're new to the man and his music or only know the name from his movie soundtrack work or Short People they're a bloody good place to start acquainting yourself with one of the all-time great songwriters.
Some links: