Review
Three Chord Opera isn’t a complete return to the stripped-down punch of “Cherry, Cherry,” which made Neil Diamond a certifiable rock star in 1966, but he hasn’t sounded so fresh and frisky in decades. He returns to rock & roll via dramatic piano and guitar-laden arrangements à la Bruce Springsteen. On “A Mission of Love,” he cops the streetwise swagger of Dion, while the opening bars of “Elijah’s Song” evoke the grandeur of “Born to Run.” In keeping with the “opera” part of the title, the richly orchestrated production (by Peter Asher and Alan Lindgren) tends toward sophistication rather than schlock, while the dare-to-be-sappy “I Believe in Happy Endings” and the Manilow-esque “At the Movies” are reassuringly cheesy.
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