Rick Rubin has revivified many late-career musicians, most notably Johnny Cash, whose quartet of American Recordings achieved both universal praise and commercial success. Twenty years ago, he worked with Neil Diamond, applying his trademark unplugged approach to Diamond’s distinctive spregesang style.
The result, 12 Songs (2005), was one of the singer's most successful studio recordings, charting at #4 on Billboard. James Bassett of PopMatters considered it “an album of rare beauty, grace, and eloquence that captures Diamond in all his plain-spoken and big-hearted glory.” Home Before Dark (2008) saw the two men reprise their partnership and, with it, Diamond became the oldest performer to hit number one.
Now comes the final instalment, Wild at Heart, nine songs from the Home sessions reworked and released here for the first time, plus a previously unreleased take of "Forgotten". Declares Diamond: “My work with Rick was a labour of love, and I’m so gratified that these songs will finally be set free into the world to complete our trilogy of work.”
Ten years after they last worked together, a Parkinson’s diagnosis forced Diamond to abandon his 50th anniversary tour. Knocked sideways, he took a few years to make peace with his situation, during which time there were but a handful of surprise appearances. Now he’s back in the studio. Wild at Heart features keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell (both from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers), plus guitarists Smokey Hormel Matt Sweeney, as per Home.
Down the years there have been too many moon/June rhymes, and rather too much stadium glitz which led to many criticising his inclusion in The Last Waltz – Robbie Robertson defended his selection, explaining that Diamond bridged the gap between the Brill Building songwriters of the 1950s and the singer-songwriters of the 1960s. Whatever, the staggering numbers tell their own story and, while “You’re My Favourite Song” is one track that serves as a reminder of Diamond’s cloying, overly sweet and bouncy career moments, Rubin’s minimalist approach reveals more of the man beneath the beads and sequins that characterised his arena tours. As he delivers numbers such as “You Can’t Have It All” and “Talking It to Death” – the latter in a minor key, relatively unusual for Diamond – and “Shine On”, its homespun philosophy underpinned by a healthy selection of passing chords, you feel you’re engaging with the black-clad loner who launched his career at the hallowed Bitter End in Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village. On the tender, reflective and beautifully arranged "You Still Look Good to Me” there are moments when he takes us almost into Cash terrain.
A solitary man, for sure, and now more authentic.
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