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Title: Changing times
Review: Hot August Night II is the start of the decline of the crooner and the beginer of the talker/screamer in Neil Diamond. Sometime in the late 80's he stopped singing most of his songs and started to talk or yell the most important lyrics. It was like he last all tone and rythm. I grew up being rocked to sleep as a young child to the original Hot August Night, but this album still gives me nightmares. Every couple of years I put in in the CD player just to give it another try and it always goes back on the shelf, replaced by the original. This album includes his great late 70's/early 80's songs, but they are butchered, much like his other classics. Having seen him in concert no less than 10 times, each live show is so different, sometimes smooth and classy, other times like this album indifferent, out of tune and careless. It just give rise to the question did the age, number of live shows catch up with him in the 80's?
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