The Best of Neil Diamond

The Best of Neil Diamond is a complete look at the former Brill Building songwriter from Brooklyn.

"Cracklin' Rosie" is a welcoming, opening upbeat song. The next song, "I Am . . . I Said" is a beautifully arranged, bittersweet melody. Its string sections and acoustic guitar complete it nicely. Diamond's near operatic vocal tone was passionate and confident. His songs exist as simple melodies made into deep echoing arrangements giving each song the fullness it presents itself with. "Song Sung Blue," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," "Stones," and "Sweet Caroline" follow this pattern in the same fashion and are among his best.

Diamond's music can be soft or orchestrated. In his heyday, he was an artist with many dynamics. He could change the tone of a song in concert completely from what its recorded version was and still make it sound right. The many layers of "Sweet Caroline" have been done with only voice and guitar. This song was his most successful, hitting No. 4 in 1969 on the singles chart.

His songs were all well produced with the ambition of searching for a hit single. You can hear that on many of these songs here. There are moments when he failed in overproduction and then there are the clean, climactic moments as in "Holly Holy." Every part of this song has the right amount of instrumentation at the right time.

His style was ambitious and introspective at the same time. Through the late '60s and early '70s, these characteristics proved to serve him well.