A classic and so much more fitting of Neil Diamond’s talent

Home Before Dark

Neil Diamond
Sony BMG

Review by Evelyn Holtzhausen

Those people who have preferred to remain in the closet rather than tell the world that they actually like Neil Diamond can come out now, thanks to the amazing collection of songs by the man who gave us Hot August Night, and some of the most enduring anthems of the ‘60s.

Like he did for the late great Johnny Cash, with the American Recordings, Rick Rubin has taken Diamond by the scruff of his neck and wrung from him a CD full of songs which are good enough to put Diamond back at the top of the charts.

“No-one ever put me in a studio and asked me to sing the songs I want to,” Johnny Cash said of Rubin. This allowed Cash to deliver the best music he had ever recorded. Well, the same must be said of Diamond who in his liner notes describes the year of agony he went through to produce this album.

Track 12, Home before Dark is what the sticker on the CD promotes as the winning, chart-topping track, but I had difficulty getting past track one, If I Don’t See You Again.

This is such a great song, a wonderful love song in fact sung about a short relationship in the mould of the best Diamond has ever done from Sweet Caroline to I Am I Said, Holy Holy and any other Diamond hit you care to name. Diamond has a lot to thank Rick Rubin for.

This CD is a classic and so much more fitting of a song-writing man of Neil Diamond’s talent than that failure of a comeback attempt – ’12 Songs’ – released a year or so ago. Welcome back Mr Diamond. EJH