Review: Neil Diamond - Dreams

Neil Diamond continues his work with Rick Rubin, and again like the two previous records, stripped-down is the name of the concept. Even though the record is mostly filled with covers of very famous tracks like, Hallelujah, Blackbird and Desperado, Neil Diamond really does a great job interpreting them, he sings with the kind of warmth and deep emotion that gives you the chills. I'm sure there are a lot of guys out there coming after my balls when I now make the statement that this is the best album ever recorded by Neil Diamond.

On this album everything just seems to come perfectly together, Neil's beautiful voice, the song choices, the nice smooth accompaniment of the band, and the great producing of Rick Rubin. A notable piece on the album is Diamond's rerecording of his early rocker I'm A Believer, this time all of the striking power that busted towards you through your speakers of the old version is gone. This time it's slow, nice, relaxing, classy, simply beautiful.

Of course the album is very moody, but is not a bad thing it makes it seem whole and complete. I think an album with this kind of an track listing it could easily have turned out to be very corny, and it was what I was afraid it would be when I first saw the tracks, don't judge the book by it's cover I guess.


Tracks:

01. Ain't No Sunshine
02. Blackbird
03. Alone Again (Naturally)
04. Feels Like Home
05. Midnight Train To Georgia
06. I'm A Believer
07. Love Song
08. Losing You
09. Hallelujah
10. A Song For You
11. Yesterday
12. Let It Be Me
13. Desperado
14. Don't Forget Me


5/5