Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark Deluxe Edition with DVD (18 tracks) +Album Reviews +Used CD available for Swap

The winning streak continues

G. Vernon | Seattle, WA USA | 05/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow. Since when does an artist who has been toiling away in the industry for 5 decades challenge his entire catalog by releasing what may be the two strongest albums in his illustrious career? As good as 12 Songs is, it's possible that Home Before Dark may even surpass its achievements. Whether it does so will depend on whether 12 Songs was too stark, too stripped-down, for the listener. Without moving remotely close to the bombast of the 80s, Diamond and Rubin have filled out the sound Home Before Dark with more instrumentation, which may please those for whom 12 Songs was too intimate.

Not for this listener. 12 Songs and Home Before Dark both showcase Diamond's greatest asset: his ability as a songwriter, and in both cases we are presented with the most solid, accomplished cycle of songs since the period that gave us "Moods" and "Stones."

Home Before Dark is a towering achievement, possibly even moreso than 12 Songs, as it shows without a doubt that 12 Songs was no fluke. Neil Diamond may be no spring chicken but he's at the height of his power as an artist. I guarantee you that if you ever loved Neil in the past, this album will remind you of everything you loved him for. It's truly stunning."

I really like this new album from Neil Diamond

Robert G Yokoyama | Mililani, Hawaii | 05/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Neil Diamond sounds good on "Home Before Dark". There is so much wisdom and warmth in his voice. These two qualities have always been part of his appeal for me. My favorite track is "The Day Time Forgot". It is a pretty duet that Neil sings with Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. The keyboard playing by Benmont Tench is beautiful on this track. My other favorite track is "Pretty Amazing Grace". This is a spiritual song about forgiveness. Neil sounds great vocally. He also plays the acoustic guitar superbly on this track. "The Power Of Two" is a good song. I like the violin playing by Chuck Findley on this track. "If I Don't See You Again" is a beautiful tune about friendship. There is a trio of guitar players on this track. They sound so good playing together. Julia Sweeney is creditted with playing the guitar here. "One More Bite Of The Apple" is a very personal song about Neil's longing to make music. "Forgotten" is another song that Neil performs with his guitar. This is a very engaging song and video. I love the musical arrangements and the lyrics of the songs very much."

What "12 Songs" Started , "Home Before Dark" Continues

Jim Z | 05/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Neil Diamond's last album "12 Songs" was the best he had done in years. The expanded edition of that album featured mostly the songs with just Neil and his guitar. It was a breathe of fresh air. The songs were well written , and to paraphrase a Diamond song , just "A Singer And His Song".....it was great to hear Neil without all the orchestrations and over-production that marred many of his other albums.And this trend , thanfully continues on in "Home Before Dark". Most songs feature just the barest of musical embellishments. And the 4th track , "Another Day (That Time Forgot)" , a duet with Natalie Maines , is in my opinion the absolute most beautiful melody that Neil has EVER produced. It's nice to have the singer-songwriter back. Thanks Neil , for another disc that will spin monthly in my player!"

If You've Liked Neil Diamond at any Stage of his Career

R. S. Litman | Pennsylvania USA | 05/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you've liked Neil Diamond at any stage of his career, you have got to hear this album. Reviews are not my area of expertise, so when I do write one, it means I was especially moved to write about something.

I have played almost nothing but Neil Diamond in the past 48 hours. I had a little bit of Beatles on in the car, and I also dug out my copy of the 1994 CD "From Crayons to Perfume: The Best of Lulu" because it now contains TWO songs that Neil Diamond has recorded--his own oldie "The Boat That I Row" plus a song written by Harry Nilsson that is called "Without Him" when sung by female artists and "Without Her" when sung by male artists such as Neil Diamond. "Without Her" is one of the two bonus cuts on the CD of the deluxe edition. (Incidentally, this is not to be confused with a song that Nilsson had a big hit with but didn't write called "Without You"!)

And speaking of the deluxe edition, I recommend buying it, but more for the accompanying DVD rather than the two extra songs. "Without Her" is nice to listen to, but the Bob Dylan song that closes the album, "Make You Feel My Love", has so far not made an impression on me. Neil goes further into covering other introspective singer-songwriters when he does Paul Simon's hit from Simon's days with Art Garfunkel, "The Boxer", on the DVD. Of the three songs written by others that are in the deluxe edition, "The Boxer" is my favorite rendition. I wish that DVD's were designed to at least play audio-only on CD players that aren't also DVD players so that I could enjoy this on more of my players!

I am a hopeless oldies relic, who, if asked to sing any song by an all-female group whose name begins with Dixie C, would burst out with, "Going to the chapel and we're/gonna get mar-ar-ar-ied," the opening lines from the huge 1964 hit "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups. Although I was aware of the Dixie Chicks' political controversies over the years, I had not known much about their music. I can now say that I have heard group member Natalie Maines sing. I will take "Another Day (That Time Forgot)", her duet with Neil, over "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" any day. And here is an interesting coincidence--the Dixie Cups were produced by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who produced Neil Diamond's early hits on Bang records, and the Dixie Chicks are produced by Rick Rubin, who has produced Neil's two most recent albums!

Now, let's get back to my original recommendation, that if you've liked Neil Diamond at any stage of his career, you need to hear this album. In the past couple of days, I have alternated "Home Before Dark" with what I think are some of his best recordings over the years. Sometimes, I enjoyed what I was hearing when playing the other albums; other times, I longed to be back with "Home Before Dark". And ironically, "12 Songs", his highly acclaimed album from 2 1/2 years ago, one which I couldn't put away when it first came out, was suddenly, to me, as much of a collection of yesterday's songs as Neil's own song, "Yesterday's Songs", from the early 1980s! But when I played "Classics: The Early Years", covering his hits for Bang Records in the 1960s, and "His 12 Greatest Hits", covering his hits for Uni Records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a welcome change of pace.

Well, I've posted enough. Time to get back to listening and watching "Home Before Dark".

Oh, one final thing--my favorite song on the album is "No Words", and my second favorite is "Whose Hands Are These". They are consecutive cuts on the album, and sometimes I just play the two of them, back-to-back, over and over again."

Fantastic Album, But...

Andrew Salmon | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 05/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this album. I'd have given it 5 stars if not for one problem I had with the DVD. But before I get to that, I want to state for the record (no pun intended) how good this album is. If you loved 12 SONGS, you'll love this one, too. It's that simple. They are done in the same style and Diamond's catchy melodies really work with the expanded band used for this recording. It's pure Diamond. Any Neil Diamond fan knows what I'm talking about. I purchased the version with the bonus tracks and the DVD. As for the bonus tracks the Dylan cover is great the other cover not so much. I don't know if this is due to the fact that both of he bonus tracks are not Diamond compositions so they don't quite gel or what. The Dylan one is very good the other just seems a bit out of place. Perhaps further listenings will correct this.

As for the DVD, it should be great! You get a couple of live performances and a couple of studio performances. My knock against it is that, after the first tune, you can't hear ANY vocals. They are either mixed down to a whisper or were poorly recorded in the first place. On the last tune, The Boxer, they are just gone. You can't hear a word. I thought perhaps my DVD is defective in some way. Has anyone else encountered this problem.

But if you're a Diamond fan and have your eye on the single CD version of the album, then I can't recommend it highly enough. Just be wary of the DVD. It's an exercise in frustration. There's Neil singing his heart out and you can't hear a word!

However the album is one of the best I've heard this year."

Search - Neil Diamond :: Home Before Dark (Deluxe Edition with DVD)

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