Customer Reviews
IS IT JUST ME? - By: Mrs. Jill Williams, 23 Jun 2008 
To put itin 1 sentence - The CD notes are as boring as the songs.
Why is it "Cool" to dismiss Neil Diamonds work before his work with Rick Rubin?...Any one of his non Rubin produced albums are far better than this. YES....any one! Try "Lovescape" to start.....15 songs, mostly cowritten by members of his long standing band. Who agrees? REVIEW BY MR C WILLIAMS, NOT MRS J
One of the best - By: Mrs. Diana Goreham, 07 Jun 2008 
Neil Diamond was on TV the other evening, An Audience with Neil Diamond. I do hope that Channel 4 make a DVD of it.
He was as wonderful as ever. How lovely to see him back & I cannot believe that you say he is 67, he has worn well, his voice is as good as ever. I cannot wait to go & see him.
ANOTHER AMAZING DIAMOND ALBUM - By: Ms. W. Hinselwood, 22 May 2008 EVERY SONG ON THIS ALBUM IS A REAL GEM. THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN WELL WORTH WAITING FOR. NEIL DIAMOND IS A CLASSIC SONGWRITER/SINGER AND SHOWS ONCE AGAIN HOW BRILLIANT THIS MAN STILL IS. THE BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM IS "AMAZING GRACE" AND NEIL SINGS IT WITH SUCH HEART. CANNT WAIT TILL HE RELEASES ANOTHER ALBUM!!!!!!
Diamond in the rough - By: Ewen J. Wyness, 22 May 2008 
Literally never listened to a Neil Diamond albumin my life, & then heard this & love it. My impression is that age has served Neil well, adding depth of sinceretly & experience to his lyrics, as well as an almost Johhny Cashe-seque grit to his voice. Like listening to a teacher singing you a lesson.
Different Shades of Dark - By: Music Man, 15 May 2008 As I review this I note that Neil Diamond has just entered the Billboard 100 at number 1 for the first timein his career. This is an amazing turnaround for such an established artist. Not that many years ago he was perceived as someone who was decidedly showbiz & the purveyor of cheesy overblown extravaganza.
For true fans this was something that hurt, although there was certainly more than a grain of truthin the assessment. It has been said many timesin previous reviews, a lot of them mine, that he peakedin the mid 70s, by which time he had written & recorded a catalogue of classic material.
Where did that man go? Well it seems that he simply took the easy option of treating his craft as something that could be turned on every now & then & ignore the critics...........and fans, as long as he still sold out every time he toured.
Why has he returned? Quite simply Rick Rubin! If it had been Diamond who had been chasing Rubin you might have thought that suddenly he had woken up & decided to redress the balance of credibility that had eroded the last 30 years of his career. But no.........it was Rubin who hounded Diamond.......thank goodness.
Diamond was like a man who had beenin a deluded bubble for too long until Rubin stuck a pinin the inflated ego that "yes men" had helped to build up. Fortunately this bubble didn't just burst, it burst with such a bang it shook the very foundations of Diamond's comfort zone & woke him up to the reason why so many loyal fans kept sticking with him, even though the quality was dropping. Inside, everyone hoped or dreamt that one day he would produce the kind of material that could happily stand alongside his earlier classics..........you know what they are.
12 Songs made him work harder than he had donein a long time on writing quality songs that would bring him praise around the world for what he had originated & not regurgitated. Why? Because Rick Rubin had a first class reputation within the industry & wasn't going to put out anything that would embarrass him. Suddenly Diamond wasn't looking at pleasing the bossesin the music industry who promote & distribute CDs, now he had to satisfy Rubin & from that moment he started to write music that meant something to him. Just like when he had to crack the marketin the early 60s, he had to have something that other people didn't............talent! He always had it, but he had to rediscover it.
The good news is that having found it again on 12 Songs, he has nurtured it even more on this album.
Musically it is far more melodic & interesting than his previous one. It is dark & self searching, but you get the feeling that everyone is far more comfortable this time around.
Personal favourites after a few listens are:
If I don't see you again...........a classicin the making that will be around for a long time
Pretty Amazing Grace.............melodic & a welcome changein mood
Don't go there............opens a little like Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" & morphs into a latter day Leonard Cohen, complete with Cohen signature female backing singers. Dark & humorous, a terrific track.
Forgotten...............great bluesy acoustic guitar accompaniment with a lovely organ soundin the background
Whose hands are these................good track with nice changes
No Words.......................First rate
It's a very good album & one that will inevitably get better after more listens. Like the last album, it is not easy listening first time around. But like all quality albums they grow & stay with you.
I hope that he records again with Rubin but doesn't try to do a third stark album again. I thinkin the hands of Rubin there is room for lighter material to creepin every now & again. A mix between this & Serenade & Moods would be terrific.
As for the DVD, I liked it. I think that he can forget about covering Paul Simon materialin future, The Boxer was not a good cover. However I enjoyed watching him & the musicians playing their understated stuffin the studio.
Of the bonus tracks, Without Her & Make you feel my love are OK, but not show stopping. Lulu did a better version of the first & Bryan Ferry nailed the other one on his recent Dylanesque CD.
