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Rating: Sometimes you don't even need to know the question to arrive at the answer; just an instinctive feeling, one that can give us a special certainty. Thus, a fleeting listen was enough for me to understand, without even asking myself, that this album will not just be passing through my days, but instead will accompany me for years. It will not meet the fate of so many little sparkling meteors, now turned into extinguished receptacles of dust after fleeting enthusiasms. From the first notes of the moving introductory ballad of the album — "Mary" — I developed this feeling, perhaps due to the eternal charm of the acoustic guitar, or the Hammond organ in the distant background, but more probably because of Neil Diamond's emotional voice generously bestowed with a unique warmth, strong and clear like aged whiskey.
So, defying the devotees of "everything is already written", there are still surprising albums today, unforgettable classics for tomorrow, even though they are tied to a well-established musical tradition of yesterday. "12 Songs" is just like that, special to the point that I dare to suggest it's a small masterpiece, also because it is an album that moves between subtle contrasts: intimate, melancholic, deep, decisive, and at the same time vital, clean, reconciling. An album that knows how to speak with simplicity and depth, shining with class and intensity, using very few and measured ingredients. Much of this outcome is owed to the intelligent production of Rick Rubin, who is not new to this kind of endeavor, having previously curated the unforgettable "American Recordings" by Johnny Cash. Indeed, Rubin has wisely lightened the rhythm section, surrounding Diamond's music with few elements (piano, organ, guitars, strings, rarely winds), thus highlighting the most important component of this music, which is the voice of the American songwriter, delivered with great emotional charge felt from the first track to the last. This last one, by the way — "Delirious Love" — deserves a special mention for the presence of Brian Wilson, who nostalgically makes us miss bygone times.
And I am pleased by the fact that today such an album is given to us by a gentleman who, having surpassed sixty years, perhaps someone had forgotten, while others probably thought he had already given all he could. Instead, here he is with his deep, baritone voice, teaching us that the passage of time is not always harmful. Sometimes it slowly disintegrates you, at other times it gifts you experiences and memories that, however, only a few are able to translate into a poetry that cannot be forgotten.
Tracklist and Lyrics
04 Evermore (05:18)
Have we come this far to have gone astray?
I've been lost before, but not lost this way
You and me, thought we'd be
Evermore
Do I know you?
Did I ever?
Thought I did
Now, I know better
Saw the signs but not the danger
How'd you get to be a stranger at my door?
Promises got left behind
And reason fell between the lines
The words unsaid we should have spoken
Both misled and left us broken
Evermore
Have we said it all?
Is there more to say?
Thought we'd paid our dues
Is there more to pay?
What's to be of you and me
Evermore?
Was it love or just illusion?
All I see is our confusion
Came upon us unsuspecting
Here we are reflecting on the last of it
If you think of me in a year or two
Find that photograph showing me with you
What you see is what should be
Evermore
Why?
Tell me why
Don't know why
Oh, why?
Where's the truth we took for granted?
Walking out's not how we planned it
Played it loose, but stayed together
Thought we had the truth
But never knew the score
If it's done for now
And its time to go
There's one thing unsaid
Thought you'd want to know
Love you still....guess I will
Evermore
Love you still...yes I will
Evermore
10 Create Me (04:10)
Days break, nights fall
And I wait alone
I sleep behind a wall
My silent call unknown
Create me
Create me
Take me in your hands and shape me
Wake me from this sleep to then begin again
To live again
Create me
Create me
Create me
Days break, nights fall
Each one the same
I wait behind a wall
To hear you call my name
Create me
Create me
Breathe your life into my soul
And know the greatest story told
Is you and I and how we tried
And how we won and what You've done
Creating me
How many seasons have we endured?
How many fields yet to plow?
Know that my destiny is tied to yours
Just need to trust me; our destiny is now
Create me
Lift me up and give a meaning
To a dream that I've been dreaming, endlessly
It comforts me to see you there
There you are; we've come so far
How many seasons have we endured?
How many fields yet to plow?
Know that my destiny is tied to yours
Just need to trust me; our destiny is now
Create me
Create me
Create me
Days break, nights fall
I dream alone
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