I'LL BE WHAT I AM...SOLITARY MAN!

Review Score: (8/10)
In junior high school, my algebra teacher had countless laminated Neil Diamond posters on her classroom walls. This was enough to make me ignore Neil Diamond for the next decade. When you grow a little bit older and a little bit wiser, I guess, you can grow to appreciate talent. Neil Diamond is undoubtedly a talented singer and songwriter, and having given his material a fair listen (despite the early and haunting posters-in-math-class nightmare), I can say unequivocally that this album of his early songs is not only listenable but effectively entertaining. It chronicles what I consider to be the very best of Neil Diamond, before he started the easy listening drivel of later years (a la "Coming to America" sorts of things). Diamond has been both revered and mocked by artists to come after him, including a band who does all Diamond covers. And of course songs like "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon" have been high profile remakes (by Urge Overkill in the Pulp Fiction soundtrack). The beauty of this collection is that you cannot listen to it and hate it. It is just Neil Diamond at his best, and even if you are not a Diamond fan, you can appreciate it and will recognize the songs...

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