How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Value for Money
Advantages:
A couple of high points
Disadvantages:
The end of a great career?
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
Poor old Dave - he seems to have lost his way a little bit musically, not really knowing whether he wants to be Barry Manilow, Louis Armstrong or even Willie Nelson! This album features no fewer than nine co-writers (not counting the three on the sole cover track) which is an indication of the diversity of the material.
In fact, "mellow" is probably the word which best sums up this offering, and it's certainly a million miles away from DLR-era Van Halen. Best moments are "She's My Machine" - about a car (yeah right!) - "Big Train" (featuring the line "I'm goin' before wine women and song, Become beer, the old lady and TV" - I know the feeling!), "A Little Luck" ("When I go to the movies I pay for 3" - get the drift?) and "Land's Edge" ("If love is blind why did her stockings always look so cool?").
There are also some er, strange tracks such as "Cheatin' Heart Cafe", which features a duet with Travis Tritt (who?) and borders on - aaaargh!- Country & Western! It does include the classic "The closest to a cow she'd been was eating at McDonalds". "No Big 'Ting" has a contribution from rapper Mitchielous (who?), but actually turns out to be just about the best track here! Maintaining the C&W trend, "Night Life" is co-written by Willie Nelson, but isn't as bad as that would make you think.
So, it's not so much Diamond Dave now, more like Cut Glass Dave.
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