Bacharach! The Instrumental Side serves up 14 workmanlike renditions of pop classics including "The Look of Love," "Alfie" and "Walk on By." Guitarist
Grant Geissman arranges the songs in a lite-jazz style which captures the shimmer of
Bacharach's own productions but not the depth and resonance, and as with even
Bacharach's solo instrumental albums, the disc reinforces just how much these compositions suffer from the absence of
Hal David's perennially underrated lyrics as well as a powerhouse vocalist like a
Dionne Warwick or a
Dusty Springfield. ~ Jason Ankeny