Melody Road is Neil Diamond's debut album as an artist signed to
Capitol Records. His 32nd studio album, it was the first album of original music Diamond has recorded since 2008's well-received Home Before Dark, which debuted on the US album charts at #1. It was produced by Don Was and Jacknife Lee.
After 40 years recording for
Columbia, Diamond signed with
Capitol in early 2014. At the same time, his back catalogue was moved to
Universal Music Group,
Capitol's parent company.
Capitol released Diamond's 1980
soundtrack album for The
Jazz Singer.
On September 8, 2014, six of the tracks from Melody Road were premiered at the
Capitol Records studios in Hollywood, CA at a listening party for a small group of music industry executives and journalists. Following the event, Billboard wrote that the album is "rich in orchestration that retains the dark rustic qualities of his last two studio albums of original material, 12 Songs and Home Before Dark. Of the songs, the article stated that "'Something Blue', the most commercial of the songs played Monday, has the classic Diamond mid-tempo lilt; the ballads 'The Art of Love' and '(Ooo) Do I Wanna Be Yours' offer springboards for Diamond's still-potent voice; and 'Seongah and Jimmy' is an eyewitness account of a romance between a woman from Korea and a man from Long
Island."The Wall Street Journal wrote that "The Art of Love" is a "tender offering from Diamond, who at age 73, hasn't lost that ability to convey a wide swath of emotions in just four minutes."
In September, three videos from the album were released. A lyric video for "The Art of Love" debuted on Diamond's YouTube/VEVO channel, and the video for the album's first single, "Something Blue", premiered on Yahoo! Music.Rolling Stone debuted the video for "Nothing But a Heartache" wikipedia
Tracks:-------
1. Melody Road (3:12)
2. First Time (4:02)
3. Seongah And Jimmy (5:44)
4. Something Blue (4:03)
5. Nothing But A Heartache (4:33)
6. In Better Days (3:30)
7. (Ooo) Do I Wanna Be Yours (6:14)
8. Alone At The Ball (2:56)
9. Sunny Disposition (3:14)
10. Marry Me Now (3:35)
11. The Art Of Love (4:07)
12. Melody Road (
Reprise) (1:12)
Bonus Tracks13. Remember (Harry Nilsson) 3:31
14. Something (George Harrison) 4:10
Personnel: ---------
Arranged By [Horns] – Eric Gorfain (tracks: 3, 4, 10)
Backing Vocals – Julia, Maxine, Oren, The Waters Family
Bass – Hutch Hutchinson, Sebastian Steinberg
Drums – Jeremy Stacey, Joey Waronker
Flute – Don Markese, Sara Andon
Guitar – Blake Mills, Greg Leisz, Hadley Hockensmith, Jacknife Lee, Mark Goldenberg, Neil Diamond, Richard Bennett, Smokey Hormel, Tim Pierce
Horns – Dan Weinstein, Eric Gorfain, Jamelle Williams, John Fumo, Justin Hageman, Mark Bolin, Mike Cottone, Stephanie O'Keefe
Keyboards – Benmont Tench, Greg Phillinganes, CJ Vanston, Jim Cox, Matt Rollings, Rami Jaffee
Mastered By, Recorded By [Strings, Vocals] – Bernie Becker
Percussion – Alan Estes, Joey Waronker
Producer, Keyboards – Don Was, Jacknife Lee
Words By, Music By – Neil Diamond
All thanks to original releaser