★★★★★
Even though it's not the case, these songs all feel like they share the same tired medium tempo after a few minutes. Diamond's object apparently was to highlight the songs here and not the singer or the orchestration. Trouble is, these songs aren't really done much justice by the arrangements, which include quite a bit of piano, woodwinds and brass and no drums...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
A 21st-Century Neil Diamond concert is a slick affair: an elder pop statesman at ease in his superstar environment entertaining a generations-spanning audience with singalongs and a healthy dose of showbiz patter. Back in 1972, however, he was considered a hip young thing, the denim-clad figure on the sleeve of this live album striking a rock god pose Robert Plant would be proud of...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
The title "The Very Best of " can mean two things. On the one hand, it's a self-explanatory title for one of music's most enduring, hit-encrusted and best-loved figureheads. On the other, it also happens to be the title of one Welsh pop experimenters ' best songs of recent years. Either way, it's pretty much a winner. The album itself is certainly more than a whistle-stop tour of the hits...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
This new compilation features the original studio recordings of 23 of Neil Diamond's most beloved songs, from early hits like 1966?s Cherry, Cherry, 1967?s Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon and 1969?s Sweet Caroline to some of his recent Rick Rubin-produced attempts at career rejuvenation, like 2005?s Hell Yeah and 2008?s Pretty Amazing Grace, as well as such timeless numbers as I'm a Believer, Holly Holy, I Am... I Said and You Don't Bring Me Flowers, his classic duet with Barbra Streisand...
- hour.ca
2011-12-12
★★★★★
Neil Diamond is a pretty upbeat guy -- or at least as upbeat as can be expected from a man who made his claim to fame writing "Solitary Man." His upbeatness cost him, not in dollars but in cred, as far more tortured souls were cast in bronze and plaster as the voices of their respective generations...
- thephoenix.com
2011-12-12
★★★★★
Enjoying a new lease of creative life since hooking up with Rick Rubin for 12 Songs in 2005, Neil Diamond is a man with the world at his feet once more. Critically, he's more feted than he's been since The Jazz Singer, released in 1980 and to date his definitive recorded statement. Commercially, he's doing pretty well, too, with big UK shows scheduled for this summer...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2011-05-23
★★★★★
The American independent label Bang was founded by songwriter Bert Berns (Twist And Shout, Hang On Sloopy) in 1965 and produced its fair share of AM pop radio hits in the mid-60s; these included the earliest recordings of Neil Diamond, a one-time Brill Building songwriter himself...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2011-04-25
★★★★★
If Neil Diamond is the Jewish Elvis, these are his Sun Sessions. Timed to celebrate the man's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, The Bang Years is the anthology his fans have always craved -- the first definitive collection of his Sixties nuggets, when he was just another Brooklyn punk hustling his way into the business with a guitar, groovy sideburns and a solitary-man glare...
- www.rollingstone.com
2011-03-28
★★★★★
If Neil Diamond is the Jewish Elvis, then Bang was his Sun Records. Bang was a small New York City label, distributed by Atlantic and operated by "Twist and Shout" songwriter Bert Berns. When Berns signed Diamond in 1966, Bang Records was best known for the McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy", another Berns composition. Like his boss, Diamond had graduated from New York's Brill Building, a sort of Harvard for staff songwriters; unlike Berns, Diamond didn't graduate with honors...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-03-14
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