Neil Diamond back to basics on ‘12 Songs’

Neil Diamond

“12 Songs” (Columbia) “““ 1/2

One of the year’s most eagerly awaited albums pairs an oldies showman and pop balladeer with edgy producer Rick Rubin on what could have been an excruciatingly hip reclamation project.

Instead, Rubin succeeds in taking Diamond away from his sparkly jumpsuits and polished stagecraft to the basic tasks of singing and songwriting. This is Diamond in the rough, and he hasn’t sounded this honest and powerful since “I’m a Believer.”

While Rubin’s much-acclaimed recordings with Johnny Cash found the country legend baring his soul on skeletal tracks, Diamond clings to some of his bravado and sonic trappings. In places, piano and strings buttress his acoustic guitar and vocals.

But gone are the grandiose arrangements and overwrought delivery. In graceful and intimate songs, a soulful voice shares wisdom, pain, dreams and vulnerabilities, and a solitary man rediscovers his natural gifts.

Edna Gundersen, USA Today

Public Enemy

“New Whirl Odor” (SLAMjamz) “““

Listening to the follow-up to 2002’s remix-heavy “Revolverlution” is like taking a trip back in time – to a time in the late 1980s when popular rap music was an explosive, balanced affair. For every rapper boasting about his rhyme skills and material spoils, there was a gangster rapper detailing ghetto life and a political artist advocating education and activism.

Public Enemy did each of these to varying degrees, but it was the group’s charged political bent that made it one of the most popular and controversial rap outfits. The group remains as potent as ever on “New Whirl Odor,” which features the type of jarring, disjointed and bombastic production that is the hallmark of its best work.

Lead rapper Chuck D still has one of the most commanding voices in rap, and he delivers another round of riotous railing against injustice. Even lesser cuts arrive with the type of sonic and lyric force that made Public Enemy so potent on its debut nearly 20 years ago.

Soren Baker, Los Angeles Times

Kate Bush

“Aerial” (Sony) “““

It’s been 12 years since English prog-rock faerie queen Kate Bush released an album. In that time, the 47-year-old musical adventurer’s influence has grown, with artists from Coldplay to PJ Harvey to Andre 3000 of OutKast proclaiming their adoration.

If anyone was concerned that motherhood and middle age had ironed out Bush’s eccentricities, not to worry. “Aerial” is a 16-song, double-disc collection divided into two parts, titled “A Sea of Honey” and “A Sky of Honey.” One song features Bush repeating the words “washing machine” as she melds the corporeal and ethereal; another builds a chorus out of the decimal digits of pi.

All the traits that make Bush a love-her-or-blame-her-for-Tori- Amos artist are present – she sings along with birds, and tends toward New Age-y mysticism. The good news is that Bush’s flair for harmonic invention is intact, and songs like “A Coral Room,” written for her late mother, combine undeniable beauty with emotional resonance.

Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer