Something of an anomaly in the Neil Diamond catalog, STONES features half-a-dozen covers of songs by Diamond's contemporaries, including Randy Newman, Roger Miller, and Joni Mitchell. Diamond's version of Miller's "Husbands and Wives" is a tasteful masterpiece of country pastiche, and his version of Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away" is similarly restrained. The album's title track is a fine example of early-'70s L.A. pastoral pop, while the ache of homesickness in his existential classic hit "I Am...I Said" ('and no-one heard at all, not even the chair...") continues to resonate.