Glen Campbell - Meet Glen Campbell

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