KEY POINTS:
Rating:
* * *
While it might seem that way, the 72-year-old Campbell hasn't really done a Johnny Cash on this album.
Yes, he's covered a lot of songs a fraction of his age like Cash did on his closing-chapter American Recordings series. But the 10 tracks which range through Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, U2 and Green Day and more - are delivered as deliberately lush echoes of Campbell's glorious 60s and 70s, not as a studio last rites.
And sometimes the similarities between the sunshine country pop classics of yore and these new tunes can provoke a few giggles - Petty's otherwise fine
Days
starts off sounding like the sequel to
Rhinestone Cowboy
while the Foos'
Times Like These
is on the same interstate to
Galveston
.
The combination of high-falutin' lyrics and stadium anthemics make his take on U2's
All I Want Is You
the set's most over-reaching mismatch, though opening on Travis'
Sing
, with its banjo backing, proves sweet and inspired. With Campbell's
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
, Green Day may find they've been opened up to a new market in the line-dancing community.
There is a suspicion on some of the grander numbers that the orchestrations are covering up a little creakiness in that formerly golden voice. But that's offset by the more modest ballads like Jackson Browne/Nico's
These Days
and The Replacements'
Sadly Beautiful
.
They, and a few other songs, give the album a poignancy that otherwise takes a little while to emerge.
Russell Baillie