Heartlight

by William RuhlmannAlthough Diamond has continued to sell healthy quantities of his albums and to fill arenas for his concerts, Heartlight and its title song, which was a Top Ten hit, were his last record releases as what might be called "a front'line artist," one who makes contemporary music for a contemporary audience and sells a million copies on release. It's a typical album for Diamond at this point, full of romantic sentiments rendered in highly produced settings and employing the cream of L.A. studio musicians, but lacking the excitement of his early work and the ambition of his middle period.