Music Is My Weapon

Hey it suprised me too. Neil Diamond's new CD, "12 Songs," debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart. There's security in anonymity, as anonymous as someone can be whose job requires singing in arenas filled with thousands of people.

That explains a little of Neil Diamond's wariness in response to the strong reviews he has received for "12 Songs," his back-to-basics disc produced by musical guru Rick Rubin.

He's happy, to be sure, but a little frightened.

"There's quite a bit of pressure off if you realize that not everybody is listening, just your fans are listening," he said. "In this case, I realized that a lot of other people outside my fan base are listening. Critics are listening for the first time, and that makes it scary."

Relax, Neil. Rolling Stone gave it four stars, Entertainment Weekly an "A." People magazine's Chuck Arnold said, "Let's just put it right out there: You will be blown away by the new Neil Diamond CD."

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