Closer

2 more product images	By Josh Groban Reprise / Wea, 2003, Audio CD Customer Rating: 600 reviews   Recommend List Price: $18.98 Our Price: $10.97 (Price details) You Save: $8.01 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Free Shipping on orders over $25.

Import pressing of the 2003 album from the American singing sensation features one bonus track, 'She's Out of My Life'. Produced by David Foster, this sophomore effort elaborates on the poppier side of his debut, smoothes out the edges and is a much stronger offering. Groban's vocals have grown, allowing him to add power and passion into his delivery without sounding forced or insincere. 14 tracks in all including 'My Confession', 'Caruso', 'Broken Vow' and 'Never Let Go', a collaboration with Deep Forest. Warner.

Thanks to a fortuitous intersection of talent and fate, 22-year-old Josh Groban hasn't finished his senior year in performing arts school but has already released his sophomore effort on a major major label. Fans of the young vocal phenom's debut will find much to enthrall them here, even if it nudges the singer closer to the center of producer/mentor David Foster's MOR pop sensibilities. Eschewing much of its predecessor's more overt classic-lite pretensions and pop-rock covers for a slate of dramatic, Eurocentric ballads that serve as a showcase for the singer's inviting baritone, Groban shrewdly positions himself as the American alternative to the Bocelli-Watson crossover axis. "Caruso" may find the singer falling short of its operatic inspiration, but "Oceano" and "My Confession" quickly showcase his true dramatic range (which seems to all but yearn for a bona fide Broadway musical challenge), while a vocal take of Bacalov's graceful "Il Postino" theme uses classical virtuoso Joshua Bell's violin flourishes to good effect. To his credit, Groban displays some promising efforts at songwriting collaboration on the bittersweet "Per Te" and "Remember When It Rains," while the ambient/ethnic soundscape of Deep Forest's "Never Let Go" offers a teasing alternative to the record's otherwise melodramatic production formula. Groban has found commercial triumph via Foster's mentoring, but there remains a nagging sense here that he hasn't truly pushed himself as an artist — yet. — Jerry McCulley

1. Oceano
2. My Confession
3. Il Postino (Mi Mancherai)
4. Si Volvieras a Mi
5. When You Say You Love Me
6. Per Te
7. All Improvviso Amore
8. Broken Vow
9. Caruso
10. Remember When It Rained
11. Hymne a l'Amour
12. You Raise Me Up
13. Never Let Go

Title: Closer
Sales Rank: 558 in Music
Artist: Josh Groban
Label: Reprise / Wea, 2003-11-11, Audio CD, 1 Disc
Format: Enhanced
Package Dimensions: 5.6 x 5 x 0.4 inches, 0.15 pounds

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