Like everyone else I have a place for Neil Diamond in my record collection. He seems to love constructing these complex songs that have layers, both in lyric and tempo, take "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon." His songs have an energy that is uniquely Neil Diamond. A bit corny but so sincere it can be infectious in many ways, take "Play Me."Dreams is a collection of covers by Diamond, songs he says are some of his favorites from the "rock era." There is no doubt you are listening to Neil Diamond, that's apparent with the first song "Ain't No Sunshine." But the problem here is this is a Neil Diamond who has lost his energy. The songs are so flat to me. His orchestration on a song like "Blackbird" is good, but the song sits flat. That great Neil Diamond energy is missing from every song.
I could see playing this if you have friends over for a night of board games or if you are catching up on reading.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.
He probably should have made this album 15 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI think you've pinpointed it here when you talked about his songs and performances being "uniquely Neil Diamond." A similar person in this regard would be Harry Chapin. The idea of getting to hear some old Harry Chapin recording of a cover of somebody else's great song doesn't really grab me; nor am I particularly interested in hearing anyone give Chapin's great, old songs a whirl. On the other hand, I love Bruce Springsteen. I love listening to him do his songs or covers, and I think it's interesting to hear other people do Bruce Springsteen's songs.
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