Rod Stewart – You’re In My Heart: Rod Stewart (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (2019) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Sir Rod Stewart (knighted in 2016) celebrates 50 years as a solo artist with a brand new album ‘You’re In My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’. The leg-endary singer-songwriter is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with more than 250 million records sold worldwide during a stellar career.

Rod Stewart first embraced his appeal to the middle of the road way back in 2002 when he recorded It Had to Be You, the first in a series of explorations of the Great American Songbook. Given those albums, it’s no great surprise to hear Stewart sing with an orchestra on You’re in My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. What is a surprise is that he’s hopped upon the orchestral overdub bandwagon, letting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra glop on strings and horns over original vocal tracks for such hits as “Maggie May.” Clever guy that he is, Stewart contributes a couple of ringers — including a duet with Robbie Williams on “It Takes It Two” — but those only wind up illustrating how stilted and stiff the overdubs are. On those hybrids, Stewart doesn’t seem to be riding the waves of the music, which is a gift he’s had since the beginning. Instead, the vocal tracks are tweaked to suit the needs of the orchestra, which gives You’re in My Heart an odd stuffiness. Even on his Great American Songbook albums, Stewart hasn’t sounded stuffy, so the fault isn’t his, unless he should be blamed for consenting to this project in the first place. The reason why the record doesn’t work is the concept itself: it’s wrapping warm, empathetic recordings in a lounge robe that winds up as suffocating as a straightjacket. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
1. Maggie May (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:47)
2. Reason To Believe (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (3:55)
3. Handbags and Gladrags (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:10)
4. Sailing (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:27)
5. Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright) [with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] (4:13)
6. The Killing Of Georgie, Pts. I & II (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (6:17)
7. I Don’t Want To Talk About It (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:42)
8. The First Cut Is The Deepest (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:41)
9. You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim) [with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] (4:38)
10. I Was Only Joking (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (6:26)
11. It Takes Two (with Robbie Williams) (4:22)
12. Stay With Me (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:42)
13. Young Turks (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:57)
14. What Am I Gonna Do (I’m So In Love With You) [with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] (4:39)
15. Every Beat Of My Heart (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:23)
16. Forever Young (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:54)
17. Downtown Train (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:04)
18. Rhythm of My Heart (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:17)
19. Have I Told You Lately (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (4:05)
20. Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda) [with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra] (6:32)
21. If We Fall In Love Tonight (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (5:04)
22. Stop Loving Her Today (4:11)