Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond – All-Time Greatest Hits (2014/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:18:51 minutes | 3,59 GB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

The original studio recordings from America’s quintessential singer-songwriter. 23 of Neil Diamond’s best loved hits. Includes the rare solo version of ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.’

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Acoustic Christmas (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:29 minutes | 773 MB | Genre: Pop, Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Re-teaming with Don Was and Jacknife Lee, the pair who produced his 2014 album Melody Road, Neil Diamond cut Acoustic Christmas, his fourth holiday album and first since 2009’s A Cherry Cherry Christmas. The title Acoustic Christmas suggests that this 2016 LP will be sparse, but it’s hazy and open, consisting of much more than a man and a guitar. Usually he’s supported by a full band — a rhythm section, another guitarist, a keyboardist, and backing vocalists — and that gives Acoustic Christmas some spunk, which is enough to keep things lively. If Diamond isn’t always original — his version of “Children Go Where I Send Thee” follows the contours of Nick Lowe’s 2013 version exactly — he nevertheless performs with gusto, particularly on the closing “Christmas Medley.” That showmanship is ultimately what gives Acoustic Christmas its personality and is the reason to return to the record: it may not align with the spirit of the season, but it’s charming nonetheless. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – A Cherry Cherry Christmas (2009/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:12 minutes | 1,81 GB | Genre: Pop, Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond’s first two holiday albums were plainly titled The Christmas Album and The Christmas Album, Vol. 2, which gave a pretty good indication of the by-the-book music they contained, just like how the very name of 2009’s A Cherry Cherry Christmas is a tip-off that this collection is a decidedly less serious affair, even if it recycles a good chunk of the same recordings that comprised those earlier albums. A Cherry Cherry Christmas keeps a barbershop quartet arrangement of “Deck the Halls,” a doo wop “White Christmas,” and a swinging “Jingle Bell Rock,” but what’s notable are the additions: a ridiculous, self-celebrating “Cherry Cherry Christmas” that’s trumped only by a goofy cover of Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.” These two new cuts make Diamond seem like the garrulous uncle at your family’s holiday party, the one who is eager to prove how cool he is, which only makes him seem all the more out of touch.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 06:51:58 minutes | 15,88 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

Although UMe/Capitol already ‘celebrated’ Neil Diamond‘s 50 years in music 18 months ago with a three-disc set called the ’50th anniversary collection’ it seems they haven’t celebrated enough and so will this month offer forward the ’50th Anniversary Collectors Edition’ a six-disc hardcover book deluxe package that features the same artwork, but this time includes six CDs of content, including rarities, demos and 14 previously unreleased tracks.

This set contains a full disc of unreleased songs, including ‘Sunflower,’ (originally recorded by Glen Campbell recently updated by Neil Diamond), ‘Before I Had a Dime’ and ‘C’est La Vie’ (a song that Neil co-wrote with friend Gilbert Bécaud). Also unreleased are two original demos of ‘I Am…I Said’ and ‘America,’.

I suppose they’ve got there in the end, as this set is far more appealing than last year’s effort – and is reasonably priced – although one wonders whether Universal Music plan to release 50th anniversary editions of Neil Diamond’s output every year, going forward?

For now, this year’s Neil Diamond 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition will be released on 30 November 2018.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – 50th Anniversary Collection (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:53:16 minutes | 7,19 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

The 50th Anniversary Collection from Neil Diamond, is a celebratory music package marking the 50th anniversary of the iconic, Grammy Award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame member’s first hit ‘Solitary Man’ plus 49 additional hits. Throughout an illustrious and wide-ranging musical career, Neil Diamond has sold over 130 million albums worldwide and has dominated the charts for more than five decades with 37 Top 40 singles and 16 Top 10 albums. He has achieved record sales with 40 Gold albums, 21 Platinum albums and 11 multi-platinum albums. Before becoming one of the most noted and successful recording artists in the world, Neil Diamond’s early recognition came as a songwriter. His recorded songs have become a part of the fabric of America’s songbook with a wide range of international hits.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Velvet Gloves And Spit (1968/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 34:23 minutes | 1,42 GB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Neil Diamond’s debut LP for Uni Records and his earliest extant album, Velvet Gloves and Spit has appeared in two distinctly different versions. Originally issued in October of 1968 as a ten-song LP with a photograph of Diamond in close-up on the cover, it attracted relatively little attention despite some excellent songs and one bold (if heavy-handed and misguided) effort at serious, topical songwriting. That album never sold well — none of Diamond’s albums did in those days — and two years later, in October of 1970, it was re-released with a new cover, featuring an artist’s rendition of Diamond, and an 11th song — Diamond’s version of “Shilo,” which he’d previously recorded for Bang Records — added to it. Apart from “Shilo,” most of the record was cut in New York (as opposed to the smoother, more subtly soulful, elegant sounding Memphis-based recordings that would follow) and a lot of Velvet Gloves and Spit sounds closer in texture to “Cherry Cherry” and the other sides cut by Diamond during his Brill Building phase at Bang Records through 1967, than to “Sweet Caroline” and the other records with which Diamond closed out the ’60s. There are some fine songs here, including “Honey Dripping Time,” “Practically Newborn,” “Holiday Inn Blues,” and “Sunday Sun,” and “Two-Bit Manchild” is a fascinating adaptation of his Brill Building-era sound to a personal/introspective lyric and approach (imagine the Monkees’ sound melded to a singer/songwriter persona). To appreciate this album, however, one must get past “The Pot Smoker’s Song,” a heavy-handed, anti-drug, bubblegum pop number, patterned roughly after Simon & Garfunkel’s “Old Friends/Bookends,” with trippy spoken word testimonials about the dangers of drugs (including one addict who claims to shoot heroin into his spine), punctuated by Diamond’s ridiculous sing-song chorus (“Pot, pot/Gimme some pot/Forget who you are/You can be who you’re not”). It’s a strangely fascinating artifact and helps distinguish Velvet Gloves and Spit from Diamond’s catalog of uneven albums. Also present is “Shilo,” recorded at Chips Moman’s American Studios in Memphis, which jumps ahead, presenting Diamond in his next stylistic phase with the sound that would carry him into the ’70s. – Bruce Eder & Stephen Thomas Erlewine

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Touching You, Touching Me (1969/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 31:11 minutes | 1,30 GB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Diamond’s first regular album release to sell in substantial numbers, Touching You, Touching Me contains the gold Top Ten single “Holly Holy,” and a Diamond composition, but is mostly notable for its covers of standards by other songwriters: “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “Mr. Bojangles,” “Both Sides Now,” and the chart entry “Until It’s Time for You to Go.” These helped signal that Diamond was thinking of himself less as a Brill Building hack than as a peer of Fred Neil, Jerry Jeff Walker, Joni Mitchell, and Buffy Sainte-Marie. – William Ruhlmann

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Primitive (1984/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:54 minutes | 887 MB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

Primitive attempts to capitalize on the easy listening success of Heartlight by replicating its sound and structure. In other words, it’s another collection of romantic ballads delivered with immaculate production. Diamond’s collaborations with Burt Bacharach (“Turn Around,” “Sleep With Me Tonight,” “Crazy”) show some signs of life, particularly the graceful “Turn Around,” provide the highlights of the album. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Moods (1972/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:34 minutes | 763 MB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen

Moods finds Neil Diamond attempting to craft a more ambitious and substantial album than his usual pop record through heavy orchestration, but the results only work when he sticks to catchy pop-rock, as on “Song Sung Blue,” “High Rolling Man,” and “Play Me.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – 12 Songs (2005/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:58 minutes | 1020 MB | Genre: Pop Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Neil Diamond

12 Songs is the twenty-sixth studio album by Neil Diamond, released in 2005. It was his first studio album since 2001’s Three Chord Opera. It was produced by Rick Rubin.

The working title for the album was self-titled. The original pressing of the album was copy-protected using Sony’s controversial XCP technology.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Acoustic Christmas (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:29 minutes | 775 MB | Genre: Holiday
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Front Cover| © Capitol Records

The fourth Christmas album from celebrated singer songwriter Neil Diamond coming October 28th. This will be his first acoustic Christmas album. Featuring a mélange of secular and religious classics including two brand new original tracks. Diamond has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. He is the second most successful adult contemporary artist ever on the Billboard charts. (more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Hot August Night (1972/2016) {40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition}
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 1:59:42 minutes | 4,86 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Digital Booklet | © Geffen Records

Great live albums are rare and wondrous things. In fact, capturing a performer at the height of his creative powers for a live album is so unusual that, when it does happen, it becomes a phenomenon. Neil Diamond and his 1972 Hot August Night album was just such an event. Though he had enjoyed tremendous hits prior to the album, Diamond shot to the top of acclaimed and respected performers with one of the finest live albums of the ‘70s, the double live, double platinum Hot August Night.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – Moods (1972/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 33:34 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Front Cover| © Geffen Records

Moods is the eighth studio album by Neil Diamond, released by Uni Records in 1972. It contained the second of his #1 songs, “Song Sung Blue”, and was something of a follow-up in style to the highly experimental Tap Root Manuscript.

Billboard praised Moods highly, saying it contained “brilliant, diversified material.” This album, and its follow-up live album Hot August Night, are generally acknowledged to be the two most important recording projects of Diamond’s career in terms of defining his signature sound for the future. Within the music industry and among music professionals this is considered one of Diamond’s better and more creative recordings. It received a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year for 1972. Song Sung Blue was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Lee Holdridge was the arranger and conductor of the orchestra.

(more…)

Read more

Neil Diamond – 12 Songs (2005/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/192 kHz | Time – 49:58 minutes | 1,63 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Front Cover| © Neil Diamond

12 Songs is the twenty-sixth studio album by Neil Diamond, released in 2005. It was his first album of all-original, all-new material since 2001’s Three Chord Opera. It was produced by Rick Rubin and is often erroneously cited as the first Diamond album since the Bang Records era to feature the artist playing acoustic guitar; in truth he played guitar on his Uni/MCA output and his Columbia output, possibly uncredited on most, if not all, albums.

(more…)

Read more