When 12 Songs came out in 2005, Neil Diamond seemed to have found a new lease of creative life - and a new, younger audience whose approval led him to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury three years later.
There was defintely something akin to Johnny Cash's late-career American Recordings about this and follow-up album Home Before Dark (and the later "covers" album Dreams), even though the songs were band arrangements and not stripped back to Cash's emotive soul-searching. Oh Mary, Delirious Love and late-period masterpiece Pretty Amazing Grace were at home on any setlist that included Diamond's classics from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Melody Road, on the other hand, is clearly one for his original fan base. It maps out the lay of the land on the title-track opener, with its light, old-fashioned country mood, whistling solo and lyrics that contain the occasional cringe ("I know every song you lead me to is gonna be my friend"). Indeed, this album snacks quite openly from the cheese platter, not least in Diamond's choice of song titles - Marry Me Now, Sunny Disposition and Ooo Do I Wanna Be Yours the main offenders.
As the tunes rise ever higher and more dramatically ahead of the chorus, this is unmistakably Neil Diamond - albeit harking back to the past.
ALAN MORRISON
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