Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Voice Still Golden, August 22, 2008
I thought this guy was washed up years ago. Love all his old records, and have replaced most of them on CD. But more recent offerings passed me by, and I guess I wasn't aware that Campbell was still around. Amazon shoppers, do yourselves a favor and read at least a few of these reviews. There's little I can add; I agree that what makes this new album so effective is that the contemporary arrangements merely update Glen's sound a little bit, rather than attempt to reinvent him. He does not need reinventing, and if I were to guess the man's age by the sound of his voice, I'd wager that he was half his real age. This is a superb recording without a single dud. I could have done without one of the songs, but there is nothing wrong with Glen's version (this is so personal, I don't even feel the need to single it out by name). If you only know the Glen Campbell of the 60's and 70's, and you liked him, you won't be disappointed by his latest.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Meeting Campbell on New CD, August 20, 2008
Prime Cuts: These Days, Grow Old with Me, Sing
With his last Billboard country entry being 15 years, Campbell has been sidelined as irrelevant and antiquated. At age 72, instead of rolling up his sleeves ashen by today's music's chillness, this cosmopolitan cowboy has decided to re-invent himself. "Meet Glen Campbell" is an attempt to re-introduce Glen Campbell to a new and younger audience; youngsters who knew nothing of Campbell's "Galveston" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Just like what Johnny Cash did at the twilight of his career, Campbell has enlisted of a couple of rock thoroughbreds--Julian Raymond and Howard Willing--to helm an album of covers from Velvet Underground, U2, the Foo Fighters to Travis to Green Day to Jackson Browne to the Beatles. However, despite such an eclectic mélange of material, what makes "Meet Glen Campbell" such a compelling record is that it is bona fide Glen Campbell record. Without hearing the originals, one would even have thought these are all paean were tailored for this former CMA winner. Such ingenuity only testifies to the sublime interpretive skills of Campbell.
The CD gets to a auspicious start with a churchy arrangement of Travis' "Sing" augment with bell chimes building up to a glorious anthem professing to love's prowess. "Walls," as the title suggests, is a full-bodied string-laden pop number with a marching drum line over its infectious melody. Few songs today have such singalong melodies as this Tom Petty number. Country purists who may find the crowded arrangements of the first two cuts a little on the stuffy side will find relief in another Tom Petty composition "Angel Dream." "Angel Dream" has a simpler more acoustic backing with Campbell's vocals at the cynosure. The 60s sounding backings that calls to mind Campbell's "Galveston" may be a little turn-offish on what is perhaps the weakest cut here "Times Like These."
Most appealing is the reflective Jackson Browne written "These Days." When Campbell sings: "These days I sit on corner stones/And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend/Dont confront me with my failures/I had not forgotten them" there's a touch of morose and melancholy that is so beguiling real. On the other hand, U2's love proclamation "All I Want is You" does not have the depth of the Beatles' "Grow Old With You" which up till today is still one of the best endearing love songs ever written. Never prodigious, every word seems to weigh with thought and sentiment. Given Campbell's religious convictions, Velvet Underground's "Jesus" (though lyrically contrived) fits Campbell to a tee.
Released under the Capitol Records rubric, Campbell remains one of the very few singers to still have a major label signing in their autumnal years. And based on this record, Campbell deserves it. This is not an older artist trying to be cool by cutting a rock record. Rather, it's Campbell being himself tackling contemporary songs making them his very old. At the end of the day, it's Campbell through and through. And it's such a Campbell we meet here.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Campbell breathes life and soul into these songs, August 5, 2008
It is not surprising Glen Campbell is covering pop and rock songs.He has always been the most melodic and emotional of singers with a great tenor range. Every song on this album fits Mr. Campbell--he adds depth to these songs. His voice has the conviction and maturity that makes "Good Riddance" poignant ==="Grow Old with Me" is trully beautiful/believable/life inspiring. "Times Like These" ,"These Days", "Walls","Sadly Beautiful""Sing" all are different from the originals and have a new clarity due to Mr. Campbell's intonation and phrasing. It's great to hear Glen Campbell playing guitar on this album as he has always been a top notch player. The production on this album is wonderful--the arrangements for the songs do include some strings but they add to the songs and fit naturally. This is the first vinyl album I have purchased since the 80's and it sounds better to me then digital!
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~ James Taylor
~ Glen Campbell
~ Brian Wilson
~ Lucinda Williams
~ Emmylou Harris
by Glen Campbell 
