Published on Sep 24, 2001
By 1999, Jim Brickman had risen from a commerical jingle writer
who no label would take a chance on with a solo piano career to one
of America’s most respected love balladeers. With each passing
album, Brickman was given more of a chance to expand his musical
horizons, both with instrumentation and with guest musicians.
Destiny, his 1999 effort, possibly reflected the greatest
expanse of those horizons – but it occasionally comes dangerously
close to having too many cooks spoil the broth.
First and foremost, Brickman is an exceptional songwriter who is
able to convey his emotion and his visions into his music. Granted,
the ability for singers to put words to those mental pictures often
sends the songs into the stratosphere, reaching levels that
Brickman alone could never have reached – and that is not meant as
a slam against him. A song like “Destiny,” sung by Jordan Hill and
Billy Porter, would just not have worked had it only been an
instrumental. (If this song catches me at the right moment, it can
have me in tears – and I’m not embarassed to say that.)
And Brickman’s ability to work other musical legends into the
picture only serves as further proof of his talents as a
songwriter. Herb Alpert’s guest performance on “Rendezvous” dares
to put the trumpet legend into the background of the song – a move
which actually ends up emphasizing both musicians’ performances.
It’s an amazing feat which works better than I could have imagined
– and it suggests a possible direction for Brickman’s music in time
to come.
However, at one point one wants to get up and scream, “Enough is
enough.” Granted, Brickman’s performance of “Hush Little Baby”
continues with the tradition of putting a children’s song on each
disc, and I have no problem with this – but Carly Simon’s vocals do
absolutely nothing for this song. It is the first moment on all the
albums Brickman has done where I can say that I absolutely didn’t
like what I was hearing.
And maybe it’s because my first experience with Brickman came
with his 2000 live disc
My Romance, but hearing Michael W. Smith sing “Love Of My
Life”… well, something’s missing. (No offense to Smith, but Donny
Osmond sings the absolute pants off of this number.) Smith’s
performance comes off sounding – well, a little cold.
Brickman might be featuring more vocals on
Destiny, but there’s still a strong solo piano presence –
or, more correctly, instrumental pieces with piano as the lead
instrument. Tracks like “Part Of My Heart,” “Crossroads” and
“Remembrance” all demonstrate that Brickman is still a master of
his craft.
There is one thing about
Destiny which puzzles me – namely, why two different songs
have been featured as bonus tracks. If you go and buy this disc at
the store today, the bonus track will be “What We Believe,”
featuring Pam Tillis on vocals – a pretty enough track, I admit.
But early “special” editions of
Destiny featured the first vocal performance by Brickman
himself, recorded in a live setting – and Brickman, reflecting on
his days working with Jim Henson, performs “Rainbow Connection”. I
have strong reason to believe that Brickman may be reading these
reviews the week they’re running, so… memo to Jim Brickman: Why
didn’t you leave this song on all copies of
Destiny? I mean, the disc is fine as it is – well, with the
one exception – but this track absolutely puts the whole disc into
a new emotional level. (And, yes, I downloaded it from Napster
during their golden days… damn glad I did, too.)
Destiny is possibly one of Brickman’s best-known albums, and
for several good reasons. All you have to do is put the disc in
your CD player to discover why.