Golden Slumbers

by Robert L. Doerschuk Presumably every culture has its way of serenading infants into a blissful stupor when naptime rolls around. In this part of the world the technique apparently involves mixing Broadway and kid-vid hits with more established tunes, all of it at a slow, free tempo with no rhythm track, lots of happy major thirds, and spacious echo enveloping each note like an angel's embrace. So it goes throughout Golden Slumbers, with a few more modern twists, such as vocals on several tracks and saxophone contributions, largely from project supervisor Dave Koz, that will likely nudge little sleepyheads toward a diet of gauzy R&B balladry sweetened by sprinkles of Kenny G.. Acoustic timbres dominate (gently) the foreground, with synths relegated to pad duty; electricity is, after all, dangerous. Given the audience, or at least prevailing assumptions about it, everyone here tiptoes very close to this formula. In the end, this leaves little to say about Golden Slumbers, other than it seems to work on stressed-out music reviewers too.