12 Songs 2 CDS

Product Description 2006 two CD Deluxe Version of Diamond's breath-taking 2005 album features two bonus tracks ('Men Are So Easy' and 'Delirious Love' with Brian Wilson) plus a bonus disc featuring 13 alternate versions, outtakes and demos! 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. Amazon.com Forget for a moment that you're a sophisticated consumer of music with a mercilessly low tolerance for schlock: Neil Diamond--"Cracklin' Rosie" and "Forever in Blue Jeans" be damned--is going to break your heart. 12 Songs, the hotly anticipated collaboration between Rick Rubin and the formerly jumpsuited Don Juan, exceeds all hopped-up expectations, deflating fans' concerns that their hero might fall flat on the frames of his huge sunglasses in attempting to turn out something hip and harnessing what sounds like decades' worth of untapped, superior songcraft instead. There it is on "Captain of a Shipwreck," a declaration of love that skims the poetic with its promise that "If you're captain of a shipwreck/I'll be first mate to your shame," and around it comes again on "Hell Yeah," a life-affirming, rumor-debunking anthem fairly bursting with bravado (think "I Am...I Said," but with context). Bravado aside, expect no pulled punches here. Rubin's masterful approach is to let Neil Diamond do what Neil Diamond does best, and that is to strap on a loose guitar and let those teflon-ravaged vocals ride over it. Some rides, of course, are smoother than others--Brian Wilson's guest spot on bonus track "Delirious Love" is so melodic and harmony-rich it ought to have sails attached, while "What's It Gonna Be" sounds like something snatched in a pre-dawn lark from a Leonard Coh