The following are the top 10 recess-handpicked, handcrafted openers for this review of Neil Diamond's latest LP 12 Songs.
10.) Neil Diamond is America.
9.) To me, Diamond on 12 Songs is The Man in Black remixed (ever so acoustically) with Vegas crooner Tom Jones. Which is not an awful thing.
8.) This is the first decent Diamond album in years. Sporting production from Jay-Z and Johnny Cash mastermind Rick Rubin, there's more than a couple songs here (see "Save Me A Saturday Night," "Hell Yeah" and "Face Me") that will appear on his next greatest hits compendium.
7.) What's the one flaw on his latest Rick Rubin-assisted LP? Diamond doesn't sing-song the lines from another Rubin collaboration: "99 problems and a b---h ain't one."
6.) "I'm a man of God, though I never learned to pray" begins one of several revelatory-in more ways than one-tracks on Diamond's 12 Songs. The line's almost autobiographical in that it sums up the career of Diamond as he's sung about faith and the Gospel (and women) in way as of yet unrivalled by his musical contemporaries.
5.) It's all about the Voice. And no, recess is not talking about Mariah. Or Xtina. Or even Ruben Studdard.
4.) I grew up listening to the sounds of Diamond's voice, booming and eerily resonant. Sure, he was schmaltzy but he was good-schmaltzy. And truthfully, I dreamed of my own traveling band.
3.) Nothing touches one so much as an aging rock star. Especially one you've followed and appreciated for a while. If rock sort of reflects the possibility of youth, aging icons in that genre remind us of our own impending mortality. I felt that way with Johnny Cash. I felt that way with William Shatner (on his wonderful spoken-word album, Has Been, before his inappropriate gig on Boston Legal.) After listening to Diamond's latest set 12 Songs, I'm starting to feel it again.
2.) My mom has a huge crush on Neil Diamond. She will not appreciate this shoutout.
1.) As witnessed on 12 Songs, Neil Diamond is forever. Forever? Forever ever.
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