Neil Diamond

"I've seen the light," the first song begins, and Neil Diamond reads his line with the slovenly
confidence of an illuminated saloon singer, a cosmic Sinatra hinting at some grand message
to come. But all that Diamond has to offer are bland musings adrift on an empty sea of
strings, a handful of spiritual clichés ("Plainly it is all a circle") pegged to a gallery of culture
heroes -- from Picasso to Longfellow to Christ -- and sung in a variety of dialects... More >