★★★★★
If You Believe compiles some of Jim Brickman's best previously recorded songs, as they appeared on Gift and By Heart, with several new ones. The result is an album full of lush, expressive piano pieces accompanied by the harmonies of Point of Grace and the voices of Michael W. Smith, Collin Raye, and Susan Ashton. The nine solo piano pieces on this album once again show Brickman's remarkable skills as a pianist...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Like the majority of his oeuvre, Jim Brickman lays down an instantaneously successful combination that assures airplay on adult contemporary stations and feel-good new age programs for years to come. Like his works on his Ballads, Vol. 1 and holiday records, Brickman selects a few of his favorite traditional religious hymns and invites a few guest vocalists to perform on several compositions which helps to break up an otherwise instrumental-heavy record...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
...The first piano solo artist to sign with the record label in seven years. Brickman is no mere repeat; he throws his own spin on the traditional Windham Hill sound of expressive, moody piano pieces. His music tends toward a pop sound without the words. It is upbeat and romantic. Cuts such as "Open Doors" are as fine an adagio as one may hear anywhere in the genre. "Old Times" is imbued with feeling for a fond past and that is remembered time and time again.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Jim Brickman's simple, straightforward solo piano melodies have made the extraordinary breakthrough onto soft rock radio alongside the Whitney Houstons and Mariah Careys. Perpetuating his belief that less is more, the former jingle writer keeps the romantic pieces on his eloquent third release, Picture This, short and hooky, with most clocking in under three minutes...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
The warmth of Jim Brickman's eloquent and heartfelt piano music is a perfect fit for the Christmas season, and his third holiday collection in ten years -- following 1997's The Gift and 2003's Peace -- offers a similarly engaging mix of piano solos, easily rhythmic instrumental ensemble pieces, and songs featuring well-known vocalists...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
After four gold albums and two number one adult contemporary singles, pianist Jim Brickman released this live CD that serves as a pseudo greatest-hits collection. The problems are that the vocals are performed by different artists and not all the hits are here. Released to coincide with a PBS special, Brickman is joined by Olivia Newton-John (who fills in for Martina McBride on Valentine and who co-wrote "Change of Heart" with him), Donny Osmond (who fills in for Michael W...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Pianist Jim Brickman delivers a solidly beautiful collection of his signature primarily instrumental, adult contemporary pop tunes on Escape. His first album for Sony Jazz after leaving his longtime label Windham Hill, Escape is a heartfelt, somewhat melancholy, and always pretty album that more often than not achieves a cinematic quality. In that sense, tracks such as "'Waterfall," "Paradise," and "Barcelona" are sparkling soft rock ballads that bring to mind the best of Dave Grusin...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Anyone soul-stirred by the Cleveland native's 1997 breakthrough Picture This will find the simple, mood-enhancing pleasures of Destiny -- a rich, accomplished work with not one throwaway cut -- a similarly perfect soundtrack to the big romantic interlude in the midst of life's day to day chaos...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
For his second holiday outing, pianist Jim Brickman follows the same formula that made 1997's The Gift such a success -- a selection of seasonal favorites combined with new compositions pleasantly performed by Brickman with a few guest vocalists added to break the instrumental mood. Like its predecessor, Peace utilizes the formula well, and the final product can add a lovely musical ambience to quiet holiday evenings...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
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