A delightful half hour with
Anne Murray and
Glen Campbell, the two singers looking like lovers on the front cover, casually dressed,
Murray's smiling profile face to face with the man nine years her senior. The music inside, produced and arranged by
Brian Ahern and
Al DeLory, is perfect light country-pop. There are no hits here, though that is surprising, both "Canadian Sunset" and "Bring Back the Love" should have been contenders. At times
Campbell's voice overpowers
Murray, but it doesn't detract from the album. The familiarity of these personalities on a well-crafted set of songs works for their audience as well as those who enjoy middle-of-the-road music which can fade into the background. "United We Stand" is a nice duet between the two, but it is missing the production punch that made
Brotherhood of Man's version so special the year before. Though there are strings on the interesting version of
Randy Newman's "Love Story (You & Me)," for the most part the album is produced very low-key, letting
Anne and
Glen do their thing without heavy sounds barging in.
Murray does a nice job opening up
Hoyt Axton's almost gospel-ish "Ease Your Pain,"
Campbell making it country-pop when he gets his chance at the microphone.
Glen had two hits with duets with
Bobbie Gentry and in 1976 broke the Top 30 with a medley, "Don't Pull Your Love"/"Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." Here he takes his first hit,
Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and is offset by
Anne Murray crooning Bacharach/David's "I Say a Little Prayer." He's leaving, and she's praying he won't. Everything here has a special charm, "Let Me Be the One" as pleasant as the opening track, "You're Easy to Love," and the nice country finish that is Dallas Frazier's "My Ecstasy" just as satisfying. It's a good job from both singers, and worthy of an encore. [EMI's 2007 edition included three bonus tracks.] ~ Joe Viglione