Trouble in Paradise by Randy Newman

Trouble in Paradise, Randy Newman's seventh studio album, arrived in 1983 with Russ Titelman producing, and it finds Los Angeles' most sardonic piano man doing what he does best: sliding a knife in under a pretty tune. "I Love L.A." is the calling card, a sunny valentine to his hometown that became one of his own hits, and you can never quite tell how much of the love is sincere.

Elsewhere the shadows lengthen. "The Blues", the first single, pairs Newman with Paul Simon, and "Same Girl" turns to a woman addicted to heroin. It's soft rock on the surface and something sharper underneath, with the unreliable narrators and mordant jokes all present and accounted for. Newman took it on the road with the Roches for company.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.