Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark Review

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 05.16.2008

Get Diamondized with the legend’s first number one album



Release Date: May 6, 2008
Label: Columbia
Producer: Rick Rubin

Main Personnel
Neil Diamond: Vocals
Mike Campbell: Guitar
Benmont Tench: Piano
Smokey Hormel: Guitar, Bass
Matt Sweeney: Guitar
David Campbell: Strings
Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks: Guest vocals on Another Day (That Time Forgot)

This is the direct follow up to Diamond’s 12 Songs from 2005. Much like Rick Rubin did with Johnny Cash, he stripped Diamond of the glitz and excess and returned him to his roots while also updating his sound. Home Before Dark went number one in its first week of release, Diamond’s first number one album ever. A deluxe edition of the album exists with two bonus tracks and a second disc of four videos.

TRACK LISTING

If I Don’t See You Again: The stripped down sound is evident from the first track as Diamond is only backed by a solemn acoustic guitar to start. Some light strings and piano drop in later to help the dramatic build of the song. If you check the personnel listing above, you’ll see there are no drums at all on the album. Diamond’s voice is showing signs of age, but he’s smart enough to write songs that make that work for him. On this tune he seems to be looking far back across the years at a lost love and coming to grips that she might really be gone. The sexy swagger of his youth is gone and it gives the song a much different connotation than if he had cut this thirty years ago.

Pretty Amazing Grace: The guitar has a bit of a flamenco touch here that gives the song just a hair of a sexy edge. Diamond more speaks the lyrics here than sings them, which brings out the story elements of the song. It sounds like something Johnny Cash might have cut with its story of a man redeemed by what seems to be a connection with a woman that is akin to a religious experience. Diamond really comes alive on the choruses with a fire he hasn’t shown in years.

Don’t Go There: The slap bass and extra kick in the guitar gives this song a bit of a blues sound that fits well with the lyrics. Diamond has fun on the chorus with a guttural bass in his voice and the background vocals give it almost a Greek chorus feel. It’s a warning of “don’t go there.” It’s a playful tune that makes a good edition, because you can’t wallow in morose for an entire album. The scatting and brassy horns toward the end might be a bit much though. At six minutes it overstays it’s welcome a bit long.

Another Day (That Time Forgot): I’ve never been a big fan of the Dixie Chicks. I would have brought in Alison Krause myself. Maines is a bit shrill and doesn’t quite mesh with Diamond’s vocals. She can’t get enough of the country twang out of her voice to cross to the pop side. I’d hate to blame Rubin’s producing, but this sounds more like two people singing the same song than singing the same song together, you know? I think this song is getting too much praise simply because Maines is the guest.

One More Bite of the Apple: It wouldn’t be a Neil Diamond album if we don’t get a song about songwriting and how that somehow connects to being in love with a woman. Hey, it is something he’s passionate about and because of that Diamond pushes his vocals a bit and they feel strained. He’s trying to capture that old vibrato, but he just can’t. He needed to scale back just a tad. He’s trying to sing over the music, so Rubin brings the music up and the song is just mixed louder than it should be.

Forgotten: The guitar work is very country, but it’s syncopated enough to stay on the right side of pop. That rhythm and Diamond’s line delivery really works on the chorus as he paints the picture of being forgotten by being shoved under a stack and placed on a far dusty shelf.

Act Like a Man: There’s no denying the country influence here. Diamond again laments about being a songwriter and entertainer, but with a little less stars in his eyes as the sentiment here is there is a time you can’t hide behind your art and you have to act like a man. I get visions in my head of Gary Cooper in High Noon, which the music helps. It sounds like the song from an old school western, which is not something you usually don’t associate with Diamond.

Whose Hands are These: Diamond gets metaphysical in asking whose hands and eyes are these, well, they’re his. This just felt like filler to me.

No Words: Ah, classic Neil. No words can say how I love you, but he spends a whole song trying anyway. I do like the chorus of him just repeating “no words” and “no,” because it hammers home that there are no words. This is about as clever as a song like this can be. This is another fun tune that breaks up the more serious pieces.

The Power of Two: I like the lighter tone in the music here that sets off the sweeter sentiments of the song. It’s getting later and later in the night and Neil’s woman hasn’t come home and it’s only then that he realizes the human strength in what being a couple brings. It’s not so much I love you, but I need the we we are. The speaker is having an epiphany and Neil really brings that out in the vocal, he’s pushing and strong, but not straining. Possibly my favorite song of the album.

Slow It Down: Another bluesy country tune. I like how it starts off at a certain pace and then slows down as it goes. By the end the music is just crawling. It’s a good example of a song being a piece of music with the instrumentation, vocals and lyrics all blending to paint a distinct mental image. This sounds like advice Neil might have taken himself as he’s aged. This is another song I couldn’t picture him doing thirty years ago.

Home Before Dark: A good capper to the album and a good title track. Diamond explores aging here again as ‘dark’ would seem to represent death and his struggle to get ‘home’ before it’s too late. There is a world weariness with underlying strength that makes this his best vocal performance of the album because he’s not trying too hard. It’s a tune that really brings home the jist of the album both in concept and music.

The 411: This album is a great marriage of stripped down vocals and musicality with slick studio production. Diamond has put together what is probably his best album since the early seventies with songs that build in intensity and explore age-old themes in new ways. The lyrics are simple and straightforward with the right turns of phrase to hint at an inner cleverness. The music might be sparse, but some top-flight musicians who get what Rubin is going for in the production perform brilliantly. Fans of classic singers and songwriters will really love this album and even if you don’t dig Neil, park your reservations at the door and prepared to get Diamondized.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]