This Ain’t Your Average Best Hits Collection, But Rather A Symphonic Reimagining Underscoring Michael Bolton’s Timeless Voice
My little admission is I am a total sucker for a man named Michael Bolton. Just as I am a sucker for plenty of dudes who fall under the category of Blue Eyed Soul, because, I don’t know, I just dig the fact that these cats can keep up with the Soul greats vocally – and I’m talking Michael McDonald and Bobby Womack too. When it comes to Michael Bolton, though he has a solid Pop Rock background, he realized at some point in the late 80s, ‘shit-yeah, I can sing’, and crossed over into that cool little dimension where the ballads were boundless and epic, sounding hella processed, explosive, and showcasing Bolton’s do-anything-go-anywhere voice. Love hearing his music occasionally on Adult Contemporary radio, but basically, I wrote him off as a bastion of the white-dudes-with-hella-soul past. Then comes this best hits joint, and my curiosity is peaked, mostly because I want to hear a collection of all the songs I remember as a child, but I was instantly taken aback – as this music was all rearranged with a very leisurely target in mind. Bolton gets the ultra symphonic, classy, Sinatra treatment on A Symphony of Hits, and while it sounds pretty perfect, it was not exactly what I was tryna hear when I pressed play.
