12 Songs (Neil Diamond album)

Album history

Initial work on the album began after Diamond had concluded his tour behind Three Chord Opera in 2002. Retreating to his Colorado cabin, Diamond found himself temporarily snowed in, and started to pass the time away by working on new material.

Not long afterward, Diamond met Rick Rubin. Rubin expressed interest in working with Diamond, and the two got together several times at each other's homes before ever going into the recording studio.

Rubin, using the artist's Bang and early Uni albums as a springboard, encouraged Diamond to keep writing material over the course of a year. Once the two collaborators had plenty of material at their disposal that they felt strongly about, Rubin put together some of the same musicians he had used for Johnny Cash's American Recordings releases, including Tom Petty sidemen Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and encouraged Diamond to play guitar himself in the studio. The sessions were also the last ever performance by organ player Billy Preston, who died in June 2006.

The end result, 12 Songs, ended up being one of Diamond's most successful and critically acclaimed studio albums in years, debuting at #4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Rubin's influence would extend beyond the recording sessions, as the subsequent tour behind the album found Diamond using tougher-sounding arrangements of his classic songs with his longtime backing band, and playing more guitar onstage than he had done since the Hot August Night era.

Extended copy protection

In November 2005, it was revealed that Sony BMG was distributing albums with Extended Copy Protection (XCP), a controversial feature that automatically installed rootkit software on any Microsoft Windows machine upon insertion of the disc. In addition to preventing the CD's contents from being copied, Sony's software reported the users' listening habits back to the company; insecure features of the rootkit software also exposed the computer to malicious attacks. Though Sony refused to release a list of the affected CDs, the Electronic Frontier Foundation identified 12 Songs as one of the discs with the invasive software.

Rubin says that he and Diamond were not aware of XCP, and Rubin provided this explanation to The New York Times:

By December 2005, Sony BMG had remastered and repressed 12 Songs and all other albums released with the XCP software as standard, non-copy-protected CDs.

Track listing

All songs written by Neil Diamond.

1. "Oh Mary" - 5:12
2. "Hell Yeah" - 4:25
3. "Captain of a Shipwreck" - 3:55
4. "Evermore" - 5:18
5. "Save Me a Saturday Night" - 3:31
6. "Delirious Love" - 3:12
7. "I'm on to You" - 4:27
8. "What's It Gonna Be" - 4:04
9. "Man of God" - 4:21
10. "Create Me" - 4:10
11. "Face Me" - 3:27
12. "We" - 3:49
13. "Men Are So Easy" (bonus track on special edition) - 4:04
14. "Delirious Love" (featuring Brian Wilson) (bonus track on special edition) - 3:23

Personnel

• Neil Diamond – vocals, guitars
• Larry Knechtel – acoustic piano
• Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – acoustic piano
• Benmont Tench – acoustic piano, organ
• Patrick Warren – Chamberlin
• Billy Preston – organ, Hammond organ (4, 9, 11)
• Mike Campbell – guitars, horn and string arrangements, conductor
• Smokey Hormel – guitars
• Pat McLaughlin – guitars
• Jason Sinay – guitars
• Jonny Polonsky – guitars, upright bass
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• Jimmie Haskell – horn and string arrangements (4)
• Brian Wilson – vocals (14)

Production

• Rick Rubin – producer
• Greg Fidelman – recording, mixing
• Jason Lader – recording
• Andrew Scheps – recording
• Mark Linett – additional recording
• Greg Burns – assistant engineer
• Chris Holmes – assistant engineer
• Pete Martinez – assistant engineer
• Jim Monti – assistant engineer
• Dana Nielsen – assistant engineer
• Erich Talaba – assistant engineer
• Vlado Meller – mastering at Sony Mastering (New York City, New York)
• Lindsey Chase – production coordinator
• Sam Cole – production coordinator
• Reina Katzenberger – art direction, design
• Martin Atkins – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

References

1. "Reviews for 12 Songs by Neil Diamond".
2. [{{AllMusic
3. The result is something of a songcraft master class.... A career best. [Dec 2005, p.150]
4. (November 8, 2005). "Neil Diamond - 12 Songs".
5. Atkins, Martyn. (November 7, 2005). "12 Songs". [[Time Inc.]].
6. Clarke, Betty. (24 February 2006). "Neil Diamond, 12 Songs".
7. It's not flawless, though it's damn good, and consistently engrossing. [Feb 2006, p.94]
8. Hogan, Marc. (November 21, 2005). "Neil Diamond: 12 Songs". [[Pitchfork Media]].
9. It may well be his strongest ever collection. [Feb 2006, p.98]
10. "Rolling Stone review".
11. Keefe, Jonathan. (November 6, 2005). "Neil Diamond: 12 Songs". [[Slant Magazine]].
12. (24 December 2008). "SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT - cp.sonybmg.com/xcp".
13. Hirschberg, Lynn. (2 September 2007). "Rick Rubin - Recording Industry - Rock Music".
14. "Jaaroverzichten – Album 2006".
15. "UK Year-End Chart 2006". Official Charts Company.
16. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2006".
17. Sexton, Paul. (9 December 2006). "'12 Songs' Continues Singer's Record of International Success". Billboard.
18. Cohen, Jonathan. (10 May 2008). "'Home' Field Advantage". Billboard.