Capitalizing on the success of his
Decca-released Top Ten album
Bring Him Home and his critically acclaimed performances in Les Miserables and La Boheme, Blackpool tenor
Alfie Boe's first major label,
EMI Classics, rush-released this 16-track best-of just in time for the Mother's Day market, the second time in just three months that the label raided his back catalog following the recently reissued
The Sound of Alfie Boe. Released in such close proximity,
You'll Never Walk Alone doesn't include any material from the latter, but even with only two other studio albums to select from, it's far from the hastily assembled cash-in you might expect. His increasingly widening fan base may already own the six tracks that appear from 2007's
Onward, an accessible combination of hymns, traditional standards, and contemporary pop songs performed with
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, such as
"Amazing Grace," British patriotic song
"I Vow to Thee My Country," and a cover version of
Alison Krauss & Union Station's
"A Living Prayer," and likewise with the four tracks chosen from the same year's La Passione, a more authentic Neapolitan-inspired operatic effort performed with
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra including two odes to the Italian tenor
Caruso by
Ruggero Leoncavallo (
"Mattinata") and
Lucio Dalla's (
"Caruso") along with
Agustin Lara's Latin classic
"Granada." But there are also six tracks that have never appeared on an
Alfie Boe album before. There's a duet with Welsh soprano
Natasha Marsh on a rendition of
"Brindisi" from
Verdi's La Traviata, which appeared on her 2008 self-titled effort, three digital-only releases (
"Abide with Me," "Where'er You Walk," and
"Cujus Animam" from
Rossini's Stabat Mater), and a track that has only previously appeared on
Myleene Klass' classical compilation
Music for Romance (
Donovan's
"Fratello Solo Sorella Luna"), alongside one of his contributions to award-winning composer
Howard Goodall's
Eternal Light: A Requiem (
"Agnus Dei"). While
Boe moves further into the classical pop mainstream,
You'll Never Walk Alone is a welcome reminder of his more natural operatic talents, whose combination of familiar and rarer material should appeal to newcomers and completists alike. ~ Jon O'Brien
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