Neil Diamond

Tennessee Moon

Very good effort, but he's trying too hard

Review Score:

(6/10)
Neil Diamond has always been hard to categorize. Take the movie "The Last Waltz" years ago. He had every right to be there, and had a career arguably more successful than anyone else there, yet he seemed just a bit out of place. He's written rock songs, but doesn't seem to want to live the on-the-edge life of your typical rocker. He seems to be found mostly these days on the easy listening stations, yet I would hope he would take it as a compliment that his talents rise above that mundane wasteland. I also observe that, a handful of hits aside, he really hasn't done any consistently successful work in almost thirty years.

So now we get the Neil Diamond "country" album, and the same problem occurs. Don't get me wrong, there are some terrific songs on this album, and overall, it's a keeper. But I have some problems with the same topic as above, which is how to fit Neil in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

The turnoffs are the marketing. The cover has this mega-millionaire artist with the guitar slung over his shoulder, and now all of a sudden he's a country/western artist. I guess the title is ok. But in the song itself, it's a big effort to associate him with Hank Williams, like he needs to discover his country roots. Not a bad song, but it just hits you over the head with the message of Neil Diamond, country star. There are also too many "guest stars". Nice that Neil is giving them work, but once again, it comes off as an effort by Nashville to show the world their new best buddy.

The other problem is the slower songs. For one thing, they sound like, well, Neil Diamond songs. I don't see much of a country sound in most of them. There's also what seems to be intensity for the sake of intensity. All of these problems seem to come from trying way too hard to put out a good product, and putting in too much money overproducing the work. In my opinion, he could have had a better product by doing less.

But I do want to end this in a positive note, because there are a lot of good things about the work. While they brought in way too much talent (i.e., too many cooks...), it is talent, and when the songs hit, they hit very well, especially the faster numbers. Even with the name-dropping in the title song, it's still very likeable. And I think the songs "A Matter of Love", "Can Anybody Hear Me", "No Limit", "Good Day", "Blue Highway" are all stellar numbers, which make the work very much worth keeping.

More Reviews: