I wouldn't mention this if I didn't observe how quickly shows by Neil Diamond-tribute band Super Diamond sell out up here in the great Northwest (they're playing the Showbox this Friday, Nov. 11), but I have, and they do, and that means you'll probably want to know that Neil Diamond's newest Rick Rubin-produced album, "12 Songs," is available for free listening at MySpace. (You may have to be a member of the social networking service, but these days, who isn't? Even Neil Diamond has an account.)

If you prefer to think of Neil as the author of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" and "Cherry Cherry," "12 Songs" will send you right through the roof. As he did with the late Johnny Cash, hip-hop and metal wunderkind Rubin has stripped away everything Diamond doesn't need — the sequined jumpsuits, the bleating keyboards, Barbara Streisand — and presents Diamond as he was meant to be: as a husky-voiced New Yorker with a guitar and a few things to say about life and the way he's lived it.

"12 Songs" is definitely Diamond's best work since the early 1970s, and it may well be a career high. Check it out at MySpace if you're so inclined. Or, if you're one of the many Seattleites who help keep Super Diamond in business, you can just head to your favorite record store on or after Tuesday, Nov. 8, and pick up a copy of your very own. It's so good that you won't even have to hide it between two Devendra Banhart discs out of shame.

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