It's been several years since his last studio album, but it's not like Randy Newman has been hiding under a rock.

The singer and acclaimed film scorer released Harps and Angels earlier this year after being nominated for an Oscar and earning a Grammy last year for the song Our Town, from the animated film, Cars.

Newman, 64, says writing for the big screen has helped when it comes to penning his own solo material.

"Yeah, I think it helps me stay sharp," Newman says from his California home. "You have to write every day and it's hard to get away from it. Harmonically, it takes you different places. And then there's orchestration. It has definitely helped. Elton John doesn't like to write and I don't like to write, either. But he works a couple of days a year with the lyrics and often has great songs.

"I don't know, but I think most people do their best work early and I think maybe I'm an exception. If I look at my first album (1968's self-titled release) and this album, and this album is better."

Newman, performing tonight at Convocation Hall, hasn't lost his sense of irony or wit. From his songs such as Short People and Rednecks, the performer always has been able to poke fun at issues to which some people take offence.

And this album is no different, especially the song A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country, which Newman posted online last year concerning the presidency of George W. Bush. The song was rated by Rolling Stone as the No. 2 song of 2007. The tune cites the shortcomings of other historical leaders such as Stalin and Caligula.

"I think it's a funny song," Newman says. "This is a guy who I put myself in the situation of. It's exaggerated that I have to use Caligula in my work. I mean, I'm not a political songwriter particularly but I always thought that the country can run itself. Apparently it can't. When you have people who aren't really good at anything, you can make a mess of it and it seems that they have."

Newman says that sometimes the songwriting process is easier when "you get gifts where something just falls on you and you get a little rhyme."

He says such instances are getting rarer but he often is driven to write when one basic emotion surfaces.

"I think anger has always done well by me," he says. "If I'm angry about something, I wrote about it, like racism or ... I don't want to be a political commentator but they're so noisy about so much and mostly it's bad. It's hard to get away from."

One thing which Newman traditionally got away from, but was clued into with Harps and Angels, was the bass, something producer Mitchell Froom assisted with.

"I never pay much attention to the bass. You're banging away (on the piano) and I never was interested in the sound of the bass," he says.

"I'm more interested in it now. Mitchell would say some of that's wrong or get a bass player in. It was ridiculous that I wasn't paying attention to it, but what I was interested in was the orchestration of the song."

Mere moments before our discussion, another phone interview with one of the New Kids On The Block took place, so Newman is jokingly instructed in advance to hang up if anything New Kids On The Block-related is asked.

"Which band is that?" Newman inquires, perfectly oblivious to the boy-band world. "Is that the band with Justin Timberlake in it?"

No, it was the group before that one.

"Oh yeah, right, he's (Donnie Wahlberg) an actor. I wish I had a brick (money) like that."