Neil Sedaka - The Real Neil
Artist: Neil Sedaka
Album: The Real Neil
Label: Music Infinity
OUT NOW
Rating: 3/5
Neil Sedaka has enjoyed a long and illustrious career and this week he is back with his new album The Real Neil.
For the first time in his career The Real Neil sees the singer song-writer record an acoustic album that shows off his songs in the purest form.
Sedaka writes his songs with just a piano for company and he strips back some of his best known tracks in this vocal and piano driven album.
Beginning to Breathe Again is the opening track on the album and the acoustic form really works on this song.
Sedaka is on good form vocally before the piano kicks in but there is a real passion from the singer in this track that comes through with every word.
However this format doesn’t really work with You’ll Be There as you just feel that this song needed something a little extra to really bring it to life - it is just missing that something.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do is one of Sedaka’s biggest hits and he delivers it like you have never heard it before.
The stripped back format really does work for this track and it really is a touching and emotional rendition from Sedaka.
Sedaka shows off another side to his musical talent at the end of this album as he has composed his first piano concerto Manhattan Intermezzo.
Sedaka was classically trained before he went down the pop route and this is the best track on the album as there is a real passion and fire in what Sedaka has written.
Manhattan Intermezzo is a nod to his home city of New York and he has teamed up with the London Philharmonic Orchestra to deliver a very beautiful piece of music.
The Real Neil shows that Neil Sedaka is still on top form and it shows that you don’t need fancy production deliver a sincere and emotional album.
It’s great to see Sedaka trying something new with his music as he puts a new spin on many of his well known tracks - although this format doesn’t work on them on.
The Real Neil perhaps won’t win over any new fans for the singer song-writer but the faithful fans will be able to enjoy the classics like that have never heard them before.
Neil Sedaka - The Real Neil is out now
Click here to buy The Real Neil album
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw