Neil Diamond: On The Way To The Sky : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Neil Diamond's quasi-classical melodies and oratorical vocals evoke a Hollywood Moses gesticulating wildly toward the heavens. This hasn't always been the case. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, Diamond was content to churn out cheerful pop-country hits ("Sweet Caroline," "Cracklin' Rosie") that had no artistic pretensions. But with Jonathan Livingston Seagull, his music became curdled with intellectual self-importance.

On the Way to the Sky is a typically overblown collection of tuneful trifles that aren't nearly as strong as last year's score for The Jazz Singer. The title track, an expansively dreamy waltz with lyrícs by Carole Bayer Sager, is the only song whose lofty tone doesn't sound forced. Diamond retards "Save Me" into a turgid pseudoaria, while "The Drifter" borrows its opening hook from "The Merry Widow Waltz."

Though Diamond is unfailingly melodic and his booming bass-baritone smolders with emotion, the arrangements and lyrics here are pure Las Vegas kitsch. What Neil Diamond needs is an astute producer-arranger who can give him the taste to match his talent.