Glen Campbell: Meet Glen Campbell

Johnny Cash's 1994 album American Recordings established a simple

template for comebacks: Just get back to doing what made listeners fall in love

with you, and let the rest take care of itself. (Throwing in some songs by

modern songwriters who grew up listening to you doesn't hurt, either.) Glen

Campbell more or less follows the same pattern with the optimistically titled Meet

Glen Campbell.

But where for Cash, getting back to his roots meant getting back to his take on

American roots music, whatever the vintage of the song itself, it means

something else to Campbell. Before he was a country star, he was an L.A.

session legend, and his best-loved country songs ("Wichita Lineman," "By The

Time I Get To Phoenix") owe as much to studio professionalism and tasteful

interpretation as piercing vision.

Thus Meet Glen Campbell finds the one-time

Rhinestone Cowboy bringing in string sections and fussed-over arrangements to

back his takes on songs by Green Day ("Good Riddance"), Travis ("Sing"), Foo

Fighters ("Times Like These"), and others. There's nothing really objectionable

here, but nothing transcendent either. Campbell still has a fine voice, but

only his takes on The Replacements' "Sadly Beautiful" and The Velvet

Underground's "Jesus" find him mustering much passion. He's welcome to come

back, but first he needs to give us a reason to care.