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Neil Diamond has had a hectic week. He played his arguably best-known song, "Sweet Caroline," on the roof of Jimmy Kimmel's show April 29, hopped to American Idol to perform "Pretty Amazing Grace" the next day and saw SIRIUS Satellite Radio launch an all-Neil Diamond channel two days after that.
While the radio station will only last two weeks, his flurry of activity is to make sure his latest album, Home Before Dark, lasts much longer in the collective public conscious. Never one for much of a studio hiatus, Diamond has returned for album No. 29 in a more reflective state of mind. The rhinestones have been cast aside at some other, distant home.
To achieve lasting impact, Diamond went back to miracle-working producer Rick Rubin, the man behind the now-legendary final album of Johnny Cash, as well as efforts from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Dixie Chicks, among many others.
Rubin produced Diamond's last album, 2005's 12 Songs, which was universally praised by fans and critics, and the pair look to continue the magic by using the same formula. On Home Before Dark, Rubin achieves his famous stripped-down, raw sound by limiting the session players to Diamond and a handful of studio musicians.
There are no drums on the album, and other than a few tracks that feature a piano or other instruments in the background, it feels like Diamond recorded this album alone in the studio - just a man, a guitar and a microphone.
This isn't the glittery shirt, tight-pants-wearing, casino-headlining version of Diamond most listeners (at least, those not familiar with 12 Songs) think of. Instead, this is the sitting on the front-porch Americana version of the troubadour.
Surprisingly, it is a role that suits him well, allowing his voice to find suitable backing among low-key instrumentation.
Despite the quieter feel expected from such an album, Diamond manages to find some upbeat songs in those soft guitar sounds. "No Words" is a love song, but it is not some syrupy-sweet teen love ballad. Instead, it is a profession of love from someone who has been around the block a few times - and it feels different from other songs like it.
When he sings he "Looked/ through books/ and read through dictionaries/ but I found/ no words/ for you," it comes off not clichéd and lame but, instead, believable - an elder statesman professing his love.
The album is full of lengthy songs - the shortest, "Whose Hands Are These," is the only tune that clocks in under the four-minute mark. Most of the tracks hover around five minutes, and some expand beyond six minutes. At times, the length feels overdone and hampers some of the songs, but it scores points in contributing to the album's overall feel.
At 6:39, "One More Bite Of The Apple" is the second-longest song on Home Before Dark, but it avoids the dragged-out feeling a song of this length typically has. The song is an introspective look back on life, with Diamond providing the voice for the man who is "Coming back/ for one more bite of the apple," or just one more taste of life. Like the love ballad, it appears to be close to home for Diamond, and it makes the song that much more meaningful.
Home Before Dark, as a whole piece, is an excellent album. Rubin's efforts to strip down the once-glitzy Neil Diamond may seem like an exercise in futility. And that is not to mention the added challenge of keeping Diamond relevant as musical tastes change and the artist gets older, but together, Rubin and Diamond pull off the humbled-Neil act.
Like Cash before him, Diamond is able to use Rubin's skills in minimalism to his full advantage. Home Before Dark may continue the sort of career resurgence that started with 12 Songs. Here is hoping the dynamic duo has a few more albums left in the tank - and they can live up to their strong precedent.
tripp.laino@yahoo.com
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
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