12 Songs

Performer: Neil Diamond
Engineer: Mark Linette; Greg Fidelman; Mark Linnett; Andrew Scheps; Jason Lader
Producer: Rick Rubin; Rick Rubin
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. 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); 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). Additional personnel: Brian Wilson (vocals). Audio Mixer: Greg Fidelman. Recording information: Akademie Mathematique Of Philosophical Sound Research,; ArchAngel Recording Studio, LA, CA; Oceanway Recording Studio, LA, CA; Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA; Te Sound Factory, Los Angeles, CA; The Sound Factory, LA, CA. Photographer: Martin Atkins. Arranger: Jimmie Haskell. Calling 12 Songs Neil Diamond's best album in three decades may be a little misleading: truth be told, it doesn't have much competition in his discography. While Diamond never stopped making albums, he did seem progressively less interested in recording sometime after the Robbie Robertson-produced 1976 album Beautiful Noise. Following that weird, ambitious album, he pursued a slicker, streamlined course and started writing less original material. For a while, this paid off great commercial dividends, culminating in his 1980 remake of the Al Jolson film The Jazz Singer, but after 1982's Heartlight he slowly drifted off the pop charts. Over the next two decades, he toured regularly, turning out a new album every three or four years, and their patchwork nature of a few covers and a few originals suggested that Diamond wasn't as engaged in either the writing or recording process as he was at the peak of his career. With 2001's Three Chord Opera he delivered his first album of all-original material since Beautiful Noise, which was also his first non-concept album since 1991's Lovescape (he spent the interim cutting theme albums, such as a record devoted to Brill Building pop or a country-oriented collection). While it was uneven, it did suggest that Diamond was re-engaging with both writing and recording, and as he prepared material for a new record, he received word that producer Rick Rubin -- the man responsible for Johnny Cash's acclaimed '90s comeback, American Recordings -- was interested in working with him, and the two combined for the project that turned out to be 12 Songs. Rubin was the first producer to push Diamond since Robbie Robertson, but where Robertson indulged the singer/songwriter, Rubin drove Neil to strip his music down to his essence. As Diamond's candid liner notes reveal, Rubin wasn't a co-writer, he was a precise and exacting editor, encouraging Neil to rework songs, abandon some tunes, and to keep writing. The process worked, as Diamond wound up with a set of 12 songs (actually, 13 on the special edition that contains two bonus tracks, including an alternate version of "Delirious Love" featuring a delirious Brian Wilson contribution) that result in his most consistent set of songs ever. This is entirely Rubin's doing, since he's the first producer to exercise such tight control over one of Diamond's albums. Where Tom Catalano, the producer of Neil's '60s and early-'70s work, let Diamond indulge in flights of fancy and sheer weirdness, Rubin keeps him on a tight leash, only allowing a couple of light, cheerful songs into the finished product. Instead of encouraging Neil to write these rollicking, effortlessly hooky pop songs, Rubin brings the moody undercurrents of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" and "Solitary Man" to the forefront, pushing Diamond toward somber, introspective territory that his music suggested but never truly explored in the past. To highlight this mood, Rubin keeps the arrangements spare, even skeletal, reminiscent of the monochromatic nature of his Cash collaborations. 12 Songs also shares with American Recordings a creeping sense of mortality, but where that sounded natural coming from Johnny Cash, it's slightly affected here, since even when Diamond attempts to reach inward it's offset by his natural inclination toward hamminess. And that flair for the theatrical almost begs out for arrangements that are a little bit more fleshed out than what's here -- not something as slickly cold as what he did in the late '70s, but something similar to the rich yet fruity orchestrations Catalano brought to Diamond's best songs. But if 12 Songs does occasionally come across as slightly affected in its intent and presentation, it also is inarguably Neil Diamond's best set of songs in a long, long time. Diamond's writing is not only more ambitious than it has been in years, but it's also more fully realized; the songs are tightly written, with the melodies bringing out the emotions in the lyrics. Similarly, Diamond also sounds engaged as a performer, singing with passion and unexpected understatement; it's his most controlled, varied vocal performance ever, and even if Rubin's production is a bit too stark, it does force listeners to concentrate on the songs, which makes this a better case for Diamond's talents as a songwriter than most of his other albums. And that's why 12 Songs is, in a way, even more welcome than American Recordings. Where Cash's comeback confirmed what everybody already knew about him, this presents a side of Neil Diamond that's never been heard on record and, in the process, it offers a new way of looking at the rest of his catalog -- which is a pretty remarkable achievement, but the best thing about 12 Songs is that it's simply one of the most entertaining, satisfying albums Diamond has ever released. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine 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.

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."

With a career as a hitmaker stretching across the decades, Neil Diamond has purveyed catchy, three-chord pop/rock, progressive singer/songwriter material, middle-of-the-road balladry, and even traditional country. He started out as a Brill Building hitmaker; a songwriter for hire, he worked alongside the likes of Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and penned hits for the Monkees and Jay & the Americans. His solo career took off in the mid 1960s and made him one of America's most successful recording artists and concert attractions for a long time to come. Even decades down the road, younger groups such as UB40 in the '80s, Urge Overkill in the '90s, and Smash Mouth in the 2000's were still scoring hits with Diamond's evergreen compositions.

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