AMG Review of Unspoken

Jared Johnson
All Music Guide

Swimming in a sea of Jim Brickman's holiday, children's, Disney, and vocal duet collections, it's his solo piano albums that sometimes get lost amid the more commercially packaged, targeted-for-the-masses albums. When in reality, it's those very solo piano songs that made him who he is today, a sensation in every sense of the word, the good guy who you, your mother, and your children all love. Back in his sweet spot, Brickman shows once again why he is the master of his craft. Unspoken was his first all-solo CD in 15 years, the only such disc since his debut No Words. And despite the places his career has taken him in those years, Unspoken sounds like the same old Brickman. The album is romantic, poignant, understated, delicate, and performed with exquisite perfection. If anything, Unspoken reveals his soothing passion with a more deliberate tenderness. Tracks like "New Beginnings," "Whisper," and "After the Rain" showcase his seductively simple arrangements as well as anything he has written in over a decade.