| Product Summary | | Label: Sony | | UPC: 00886970395823 | | Release Date: 12/12/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 203391100 | | Item#: M3CRHM | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Oh Mary ~ Neil Diamond |  | | 2. Hell Yeah ~ Neil Diamond | | | 3. Captain Of A Shipwreck ~ Neil Diamond | | | 4. Evermore ~ Neil Diamond | | | 5. Save Me A Saturday Night ~ Neil Diamond | | | 6. Delirious Love ~ Neil Diamond | | | 7. I'm On To You ~ Neil Diamond | | | 8. What's It Gonna Be ~ Neil Diamond | | | 9. Man Of God ~ Neil Diamond | | | 10. Create Me ~ Neil Diamond | | | 11. Face Me ~ Neil Diamond | | | 12. We ~ Neil Diamond | | | 13. Men Are So Easy - (bonus track) ~ Neil Diamond | | | 14. Delirious Love - (bonus track, featuring Brian Wilson) ~ Neil Diamond | |
(C) (P) 2005, 2006 Neil Diamond and SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
In the 1990s, producer Rick Rubin (renowned for his work with acts ranging from Run-DMC to Slayer) helped to reinvigorate the career of country legend Johnny Cash by bringing him back to the basics of his sound. On 2005's 12 SONGS, Rubin facilitates a similar streamlining with pop crooner Neil Diamond, a not entirely surprising move, as Rubin steered Cash toward covering Diamond on AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN.
The Brooklyn-born performer returns to his singer/songwriter roots, leaving the glitzy bombast of past outings behind, in favor of a warm, organic atmosphere that often highlights Diamond's own acoustic-guitar playing. This setting allows his emotive voice and distinctive phrasing to carry the tunes, whether he's pining away on Oh Mary or reveling in unrestrained affirmation on Hell Yeah. Although many of the tunes are strikingly spare, there is room for contributions by stellar backing musicians, including Billy Preston (organ) and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell (guitar) and Benmont Tench (piano and organ). An assured album that features Diamond playing to his strengths, 12 SONGS is a welcome return to form for a beloved American pop artist.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Neil Diamond (guitar); Neil Diamond (vocals, acoustic guitar); David Campbell (strings, horns); Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (piano); Billy Preston (organ, Hammond b-3 organ); Brian Wilson (vocals); Jonny Polonsky (guitar, upright bass); Mike Campbell , Pat McLaughlin, Smokey Hormel, Jason Sinay (guitar); Benmont Tench (piano, organ); Larry Knechtel (piano); Patrick Warren (chamberlin); Lenny Castro (percussion). | | Audio Mixers: Dana Nielsen; Greg Fidelman. | | Liner Note Author: Neil Diamond. | | Recording information: Akademie Mathematique Of Philosophical Sound Research,; ArchAngel Recording Studio, LA, CA; Oceanway Recording tudio, LA, CA; Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA; The Sound Factory, LA, CA. | | Editor: Jason Lader. | | Photographer: Martyn Atkins. | | Arranger: Jimmie Haskell. | | In the 1990s, producer Rick Rubin (renowned for his work with acts ranging from Run-DMC to Slayer) helped to reinvigorate the career of country legend Johnny Cash by bringing him back to the basics of his sound. On 2005's 12 SONGS, Rubin facilitates a similar streamlining with pop crooner Neil Diamond, a not entirely surprising move, as Rubin steered Cash toward covering Diamond on AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN. | | The Brooklyn-born performer returns to his singer/songwriter roots, leaving the glitzy bombast of past outings behind, in favor of a warm, organic atmosphere that often highlights Diamond's own acoustic-guitar playing. This setting allows his emotive voice and distinctive phrasing to carry the tunes, whether he's pining away on "Oh Mary" or reveling in unrestrained affirmation on "Hell Yeah." Although many of the tunes are strikingly spare, there is room for contributions by stellar backing musicians, including Billy Preston (organ) and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell (guitar) and Benmont Tench (piano and organ). An assured album that features Diamond playing to his strengths, 12 SONGS is a welcome return to form for a beloved American pop artist. | | One has to feel some empathy for the depression Neil Diamond underwent as a result of Sony's dreaded rootkit fiasco. (Rootkit was potentially malicious anti-piracy software Sony installed on a number of its compact disc titles.) Right at the crest of the press acclaim and rising sales -- and the beginning of Diamond overcoming the initial disbelief of aging hipsters that the album was one of his very best recording efforts and not one of his easy listening exercises -- the outcries against Sony's folly caused them to yank the album from retail. Ugh! Thankfully, Diamond gets a second chance just as he and Rick Rubin get to work on a second offering. Along with the original 12 Songs comes a pair of bonus cuts including "Men Are So Easy," and "Delirious Love," the latter of which features Brian Wilson doing his Beach Boys best with rich multi-layered "ooh" harmonies, staggered chorus lines, and handclaps. It's not stellar, and the original is better, but it's certainly worth hearing. | | In addition, there is a second disc that contains alternates, demos and outtakes from the 12 Songs sessions. They are placed in the same order as the tracks on the finished recording, and therefore add dimension and information about how certain choices were made. This is especially true of the demos. The unadorned versions of opener "Oh Mary," "I'm on to You," and "Face Me" offer an intimate and raw view of an artist whose work has been wildly polished since the mid-'60s. Here are the songs as they emerged and became clear to the songwriter; they become full-bodied in his voice as he moves and struggles to come to grips with them and make them real. Likewise, "Save Me a Saturday Night," with its tentative voice expresses a vulnerability not often evident in Diamond's finished efforts. Likewise, an early take of "Man of God," is chilling in its slowly wandering way, as if the singer is trying to convince himself more than the listener. The alternate take of "Create Me," is among the most moving and tenderly naked pieces the songwriter has ever offered. There is no tentativeness in his delivery; it's perfectly convicted, confidently delivered sung poetry. Likewise, the demo of "Face Me" doesn't just contain the requisite drama of Diamond's best downer love songs; there is real anger here along with utterly believable pain: the realization that this is most assuredly the same songwriter who gave us "Solitary Man" 40-plus years on is a bit shocking at first, but it's a few steps down the road. This is what happens when we need and want, it seems to say, and unless the Beloved looks him straight in the eye and says the words he dreads, he refuses to accept that it's happened yet again. This is Neil Diamond not as a self satisfied musician looking through his past, but the sound of a songwriter hungry for the spark, with an editor, Rubin, who won't let him veer from the path. If you missed this the first time around, get it. If you bought it the first time around, give your copy away and dig into this thing hard. You may find yourself playing the bonus disc more than the original. If you're merely a cynic, then try to pull yourself away from the Bright Eyes and Sufjan Stevens records and try not being cool for a change. You'll most likely be surprised and delighted. ~ Thom Jurek |
Producer: Rick Rubin; Rick Rubin |
Engineer: Mark Linette; Greg Fidelman; Andrew Scheps; Jason Lader |
Musical Guests | | Brian Wilson |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 12/12/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2005 | | Catalog ID : 03958 | | Label : Columbia (USA) | | Number of Discs : 2 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00886970395823 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (No. 987, p.132)
- 4 out of 5 stars - "...[H]e's as direct as he's ever been with his lyrics, which give them an extra poignancy...."Entertainment Weekly (pp.140-143)
- Ranked #6 in Entertainment Weekly's 'Top Ten Records of the Year' -- "Conor Oberst could take a few tips on song structure and understated vocal projection from the old-schooler comeback of '05." Entertainment Weekly (No. 849, p.67)
- "...[T]he singer's well-preserved, Corinthian-leather voice and softy strummed chords are the focus...." - Grade: A Q (p.125)
- Ranked #19 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "Diamond rediscovered the simple joys of guitar and voice..." Uncut (p.66)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Responding to the intimacy of the settings, Diamond eschews bombast in his performances in favour of a melancholy that seems earned, even Dylanesque..." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.94)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "What makes 'Oh Mary', and much of this album so good, and in many ways shocking, is that it's all about the voice and the song....Consistently engrossing." |
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