This album is supposed to do for Neil what American Recordings did for Johnny Cash - strip the sound down to the bare essence, and attract a newer, more rockish breed of fans.
I have this album, and I'm still kinda iffy on it. It sounds just as ballady and middle-of-the-road as what Neil usually puts out these days; the only difference is that the production isn't as slick.
hahahah! i was just messing. although i'm gonna go out on a limb saying that i think he was a good songwriter, i heard this shit way too much as a kid...
I like this album. It's good. Sounds like the Cash albums.
I EXPECTED it to sound like Cash's later albums, but didn't quite get that. Maybe it'll grow on me.
Neil Diamond's hits from the 1960's ("Thank The Lord For The Night Time," "Solitary Man," "You Got To Me," even "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show") were actually pretty good pop-rock in their own right. That live album he did on Uni, Gold is actually fairly edgy. He's singing his heart out with a small band in a hipster folk-rock nightclub (the Troubadour in L.A.), and it's got a lot more energy than you'd expect. He lost it in 1970, and I was hoping that the new album would be a return to the older sound (esp. when he was recording for the Bang label).
Alright, I know I'm gonna get the royal flame for defending Diamond, but dammit, somebody had to say something!
I was gonna get it when it came out but then I saw on the case that it had that copy protection bullshit and I put the CD back on the shelf. This was even before the rootkit thing blew up in Sony's face and everybody knew how dangerous that DRM crap is. Being a proper computer geek I was already wary of people controlling my content.
While doing Christmas shopping I looked on the shelves again to see if they had the album and there were no copies at all. I figured they pulled all the copies (this was at Best Buy) to return them to Sony after that whole rootkit thing blew up in their face.
Comments
I have this album, and I'm still kinda iffy on it. It sounds just as ballady and middle-of-the-road as what Neil usually puts out these days; the only difference is that the production isn't as slick.
However his Christmas album has a GIGANTIC drumbreak.
I EXPECTED it to sound like Cash's later albums, but didn't quite get that. Maybe it'll grow on me.
Neil Diamond's hits from the 1960's ("Thank The Lord For The Night Time," "Solitary Man," "You Got To Me," even "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show") were actually pretty good pop-rock in their own right. That live album he did on Uni, Gold is actually fairly edgy. He's singing his heart out with a small band in a hipster folk-rock nightclub (the Troubadour in L.A.), and it's got a lot more energy than you'd expect. He lost it in 1970, and I was hoping that the new album would be a return to the older sound (esp. when he was recording for the Bang label).
Alright, I know I'm gonna get the royal flame for defending Diamond, but dammit, somebody had to say something!
While doing Christmas shopping I looked on the shelves again to see if they had the album and there were no copies at all. I figured they pulled all the copies (this was at Best Buy) to return them to Sony after that whole rootkit thing blew up in their face.