Neil Diamond
Home Before Dark

Probably, he's always been a bit overlooked here because, after all, he's always written only light pop songs and chart-toppers, but oh, what songs!

Neil Diamond, born in 1941, was already very active in the '60s. After school with Barbra Streisand as a classmate, he worked as a composer in New York, continuously churning out hits like I'm a Believer, number 1 in the USA and the UK, and A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You for The Monkees. Solitary Man became Se perdo anche te for Gianni Morandi, while I'm a Believer turned into Sono bugiarda for Caterina Caselli, and from his pen also came the big Deep Purple hit Kentucky Woman. Neil is a man of great numbers; his first album recorded for Columbia was the soundtrack for the movie Jonathan Livingston Seagull which not only grossed more than the movie itself but, sales-wise, became the second best-selling soundtrack of all time after Saturday Night Fever. It also won a Golden Globe and a Grammy. The contract he signed with Columbia in 1972, incidentally, was for five million dollars, the highest amount ever granted to an artist until then. In 1976, he was on stage alone with an Ovation guitar with The Band in The Last Waltz, and immediately afterward, produced by Robbie Robertson, he released his twentieth gold record and the first to also become platinum. After the '80s, his appearances became increasingly rare. In 1996, we find him in the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction with his version of Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon, but the artistically assertive yet musically sweet comeback happened in 2005 when the excellent production of Rick Rubin gifted us the gem of 12 Songs, marking his complete rebirth, further strengthened with the splendid Home Before Dark in 2008.

A splendid baritone voice that moves and flows smoothly throughout the work without ever showing signs of uncertainty or fatigue, accompanied by simple acoustic guitars and piano, rare keyboard notes, an essential bass, and no drums! (working with him are Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers).

A dry record, all very inspired and heartfelt, soft and round, it knows how to slowly coil and then unravel and rise even forcefully but quickly return to the soft guides of breaths and whispers, of crystalline purity and minimal essentiality of undeniable charm.

I was tempted to give it the fifth star, but I want to highlight as certainly amazing, in my opinion, track number two Pretty Amazing Grace and number eight Whose Hands Are These, for which it's definitely worth having this work in hand.

If we want to continue labeling it as Easy Listening, we can, but there is substance here, there are neither repertoire songs nor covers, but everything is fresh and new.

Welcome back, Neil. Musically, you carry your almost seventy years really well.