Neil Diamond's New Album Going Over Well

Neil Diamond's new Rick Rubin-produced album, 12 Songs, is gathering all sorts of praise, and not just of the ironic, "awesomely bad" sort. The record was just released today, but influential bloggers have already been lining up behind it. Stereogum links to the Myspace page where you can stream the entire record, and brooklynvegan is excited. Muzzle of Bees enjoys it as well:

You are just going to have to trust me. The new Neil Diamond album, “12 Songs” which hits stores tomorrow is great. Produced by Rick Rubin, Neil Diamond returns to his old singer songwriter ways. Much like what Rubin did for the late Johnny Cash, “12 Songs” sounds fresh and finds a rejuvenated Diamond with only his voice and guitar on most of the tracks. The album was streaming at Neil Diamond’s MySpace page, but the streams to not seem to be showing up right now. I will keep you posted, and try to get an MP3 up for you sometime this afternoon.
Gorilla vs. bear hosts an MP3, and Slant digs it:

...the album stands as, if not the best of a phenomenally strong year for music, one of the most indisputably interesting pop albums of the year.
But Billboard dampens the buzz a little bit, saying that it's "his best album since 1972's "Moods", but "not strong enough to qualify this as the instant classic some have suggested".

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