Dreams [CD]

I must confess that before hearing this I knew pretty much nothing about Neil Diamond and his previous recordings. This means that I can review this release without any preconceptions based on his earlier recordings.

I first came across this when a friend of mine played me `Blackbird', an elegant cover of the Beatles classic. After hearing this I just had to buy the album. Diamond has taken a set of well known songs from, as he calls it, the rock era, and re-interpreted them in his own style. When people mess with classics it can all go wrong, but Diamond manages to really pull it off and produce a record of soul stirring gentle and thoughtful tracks.

The tracks are stripped back and feature Diamond's voice and guitar prominently with simple, unobtrusive backing. The pace is generally quite slow and relaxed. With this approach Diamond manages to take well known tracks and add alayer of emotional intensity to them. Standout is the opener `Ain't No Sunshine'. Stripped of Bill Wither's powerful vocals and big musical backing, this is now a simple track in which Diamond puts across the aching pain of separation from his lover beautifully. I love the original, but now I think I prefer this one. Second on the album is `Blackbird', now transformed into a country tinged track with a really elegant tone. The unobtrusive fiddle is an absolute joy and just makes the track for me.

Diamond re-interprets `I'm a believer', which I hadn't realised he wrote. Again there are no fireworks, this is just a man gently singing about the joy that love has brought him. Much more poignant than the electric guitar driven Monkees original. Then Diamond takes on Leonard Cohen's `Hallelujah'. He doesn't mess around with it, staying pretty faithful to Cohen's original recording. This fits in well with the general mood of the piece, and is a great cover of this great song.

I am not familiar with the original recordings of the rest of the tracks so cannot draw comparisons, but the musicianship, gentle vocals and emotional intensity are the same throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed this record, and am now off to explore a bit of Diamond's back catalogue. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys simple music well played, where the lyrics are allowed to shine through.

In 1974 Neil Diamond released Rainbow, an album of covers which featured songs by Leonard Cohen and Randy Newman amongst others. Now we have Dreams a second album of covers, which also features songs by those two writers amongst others, plus a new arrangement of his own song, I'm A Believer. Thirty six years is a long time to wait for a follow up. (If you ignore The Movie Album As Time Goes By that is, and the cover photo alone of that one is warning that you should.) Was the wait worthwhile? I guess that will depend on the esteem in which you hold the original versions of the songs.

While I admire the writing of the likes of Randy Newman, Bill Withers, and Leon Russell, I have never been a big fan of their singing, so having their songs sung by Neil suits me. He seems to want to put a stamp on the songs by changing the lead instrument on a number of them. For example Desperado and Alone Again Naturally, both piano driven in the original versions, are guitar led here, while the opposite is true of Let It Be Me. The very intimate arrangement of this last named makes it one of the stand out tracks on the album. The other is the aforementioned, I'm A Believer. Diamond has said that after he wrote it, he just didn't think it was right for him and that is why it was given to The Monkees. In recent years he has been doing it in concert, pretty much as they did it, but now he seems to have found an arrangement with which he is more comfortable.

While billed as some of the artist's favourite songs of the rock era, I don't think any of the fourteen tracks could be considered rock songs, but very enjoyable for a quiet night in with the lights turned low.

Track by track information for those looking for more detail on what is being covered.

1 Ain't no Sunshine - written by Bill Withers. Unfortunately keeps the repetition which is something of a Withers trademark and spoils his songs.

2 Blackbird - Paul McCartney's much covered song, with a country fiddle added to the arrangement in place of the intrusive slap percussion of the original.

3 Alone Again Naturally - A self penned hit for Anglo/Irish Gilbert O' Sullivan in 1972, and a rather surprising inclusion.

4 Feels Like Home - The first of two Randy Newman songs.

5 Midnight Train To Georgia - Written by Jim Weatherly best known as a hit for Gladys Knight.

6 I'm A Believer - Slow arrangement of his own song which was a huge hit for The Monkees in the up tempo version. Nice acoustic guitar work

7 Love Song - Written by the late Lesley Duncan and covered by Elton John on Tumbleweed Connection.

8 Losing You - Second of two by Randy Newman. Acoustic guitar to the fore.

9 Hallelujah - One of the best by Leonard Cohen, currently much in vogue and covered.

10 Song For You - Leon Russell's song. Big arrangement and orchestration with sax, slightly out of step with the rest of the album

11 Yesterday - Probably the most covered popular song of all time, not sure that we need another version, but it is almost inevitable that it will be included in an album of covers.

12 Let It Be Me - Was originally the French language song Je t'appartiens with music by Gilbert Bécaud. The English version with lyrics by Mann Curtis was a big hit for The Everly Brothers.

13 Desperado - Written by Don Henley and Glen Frey and the title track of the Eagles' 1975 album.

14 Don't Forget Me - One of the lesser known tracks by the late Harry Nilsson, overpowering horn arrangement.

I must admit I was disappointed when I first heard Neil Diamond was releasing an album of covers. After 12 Songs and Home Before Dark, two of my favourite Neil Diamond albums, I expected a third Rubin-Diamond collaboration with self-penned songs.
After hearing the complete album, I can say without hesitation that my initial disappointment and fear were premature. Like its predecessors, this is a beautifully produced, stripped down album, with delicately nuanced interpretations and Diamond's wonderful voice and Sinatresque phrasing. My only criticism would be that there are not enough tempo variations and some of the songs have been covered over and over again by other artists.
Reading some of the reviews on this site, I would urge people to listen to this album in good conditions and not to dismiss it upon first listen because these songs, even the songs that you may not like at first, grow on you and may reveal their beauty only after a few listens.

My favourite songs: Ain't No Sunshine, Blackbird, Feels Like Home, Midnight Train To Georgia, I'm A Believer, Love Song, Hallelujah, A Song For You, Desperado, Don't Forget Me.

A great album from one of the legends of modern music.