AP
In the Now
Barry Gibb
Columbia Records
Two and a half stars
If anyone had said the Bee Gees' music would stand the test of time, most serious music aficionados would have scoffed. But then Al Green covered How Can You Mend a Broken Heart so well no one else had to sing it again.
And songs such as How Deep Is Your Love showed their staying power with their delicate sense of melody. Fast forward to 2016 and In the Now finds the last surviving Bee Gee, Barry Gibb, soldiering on without his late brothers, Robin and Maurice.
The new collection of original material, co-written with his two sons, is sometimes corny and too wordy. However, Gibb still has a striking sense of melody, and there are poignant lyrics here – most notably on songs that are themselves nostalgia trips, such as End of the Rainbow and Home Truth Song. Gibb honours his brothers on the latter when he sings: "We stand together in a one-man show."
Will the new songs hold up in the long term? No predictions here – a lot of us were wrong the first time around.
