|
Neil Young
LIST OF NEIL YOUNG REVIEWS: Neil Young (1969)
Leave your thoughts about Neil Young here.
Neil Young (1969)Album Score: 10Buffalo Springfield finally split, and Neil Young is out for solo-album blood! His contribution to the final BS album was, frankly, disappointing, and I’d imagine that he was biding his time before he could make a REAL album (i.e. one without the presence of Stephen Stills). And he comes out with THIS. An eponymous album! … And … um … it’s quite nice. I guess the only shame was that Young has a voice that threatens to conjure vomit in our children… but it’s not so awful getting used to if you’re willing to take a leap of faith. Hear some of the songs on it! The opener is a perfectly pleasant instrumental that’s supposed to transport us to the peaceful Wild West, or something. And, for the love of god, everybody in the world has to hear “The Loner.” It’s one of the most gorgeous, creative and understated songs in the world! It’s an odd combination of soft-rock ideals, crunchy guitars and a full orchestra! The melody is gorgeous and it’s quite a deal more modest than those pretentious Moody Blues dudes. Wow! A somewhat overlookable though perfectly nice “If I Could Have Her Tonight” follows, and then there’s the most instrumentally creative track of the album: “I’ve Been Waiting For You!” I’m taken with that song, and so will you! After that, it’s downhill, unfortunately. “The Old Laughing Woman” never takes off, a minute-long string quartet is pointless, “Here We Are in the Years” is shrug-worthy. HEY! But there’s still the beautifully surreal “What Did You Do to My Life?” tucked away safely in the second half! Hooray! Young lays a real pretentious turd at the end with a 9-minute folk “epic” that goes nowhere and is 100 percent boring. I can’t even listen to that thing the whole way through for fear that my brain would start growing mold. So, there’s only three gems in the album… but that’s pretty good! I’d say this album is a must-have for any Neil Young fans who have avoided this for any reason. However, if you are a Neil Young newbie, do not get this album just yet. You’ll probably think he sucks. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)Album Score: 11Neil Young teamed up with a band of dead Native Americans to produce this classic rock album that changed the face of music forever! (Well at least it changed the face of a hippie whose eyes lit up.) As his second solo album, Young finally found his niche --- the melancholic rocker/cowboy guy. Even though the album’s more focused quality is a huge improvement over his debut, I very much miss Young’s crass creativity that ran throughout the work! Oh well; I guess he just wanted to make something the public and the critics would like, and he succeeded. “Cinnamon Girl” is a rightfully well-regarded song with some memorable, heavy guitar licks, a driving beat and a catchy melody. It’s been called the first grunge song, but I’d rather not make comments about its legacy--- it’s *just* a good tune! “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” is a rather fantastic song as well with an atmosphere that’s slightly more intriguing than the melody. “Round and Round” is an interesting point of controversy among rock critics … it’s a bit overlong and repetitive, but I’ll be lying if I said the atmosphere wasn’t creepy and it didn’t get under my skin. “Down by the River” is a rambly rock ditty that overstays its welcome a bit and favors modest guitar noodling to melody and genuine development. It’s an entertaining piece, but it’s easily forgettable. A similar thing can be said about the 10-minute closer, “Cowgirl in the Sand” except it’s all done slightly better, and it does have a decent melody whenever it’s willing to come out and play. “Running Dry” is a very depressing song that doesn’t have an alluring enough atmosphere to make up for the dreary melody and instrumentation. Despite the downfall of creativity, this is very clearly a better developed and realized album compared to his more scattershot debut. I suppose it’s good that he grounded himself, though. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
After the Gold Rush (1970)Album Score: 11There are a lot of die-hard Neil Young fans out there, and most of them are snobs! I’m not willing to join the cult, so suck it up! (Now, I expect you all to send me e-mails and impress me with your vocabulary.) Neil Young is a remarkably talented individual who writes very good songs. Not always interesting ones, but they all tap into that melancholic vibe that’s undeniably affecting. After the Gold Rush is probably one of his better albums! Unfortunately, Young’s creative glimmer has mellowed out almost entirely with this release even compared to Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. In its place are very disciplined and restrained songs. Some are great … some are boring … and they all feature that annoying whiny voice! With a couple exceptions, all of these tracks beautifully understated ones featuring such instruments as the acoustic guitar and piano (occasionally there will be another instrument). Young’s lyrics are fine, and have given many of his fans pleasure! They don’t do much for me, however, because I only like lyrics that contain excessive profanity. Despite all of these deserved compliments, the one thing that works against the album is saminess! Too much DANG saminess! Even moreso than the last album. This is why I can never be a fan of this album. “Southern Man” is easily one of the guy’s best songs to date with its crunchy guitar and snarly lyrics. It’s a lot more rock ‘n’ roll than the others, but it keeps his melancholic aims completely intact. Unlike most of the other tracks, it’s actually interesting in the musical sense in several facets which makes me wonder why he doesn’t write more songs like it. Not that the other songs aren’t appreciated. “Tell Me Why” is a gorgeous and striking opener. It’s just Young and his guitar, and he’s eight trillion times better than Joan Baez! (Not that it was hard.) The title track is pretty good… bringing in an especially organic sounding piano and singing a pretty tune. He doesn’t have the same melodic sense or sheer awesomeness as Bob Dylan… but who does? Lovely album! I wish I could like Neil Young more… but I think that about everything I review that I don’t care for. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Harvest (1972)Album Score: 9A lot of critics throw the term “overrated” at this album. I read “overrated” so often that I wondered if it could still be considered overrated! But then I read a number of reviews on amazon.com and epinions.com, and I suppose the label must be maintained. This album is overrated!!!! Before you spit poison at me, I’ll have you know that I think this is a legitimately good album. It’s very meticulous and well constructed. He went for more of a minimalist approach meaning that there were very few “wasted” notes. All of this contributes to making sitting through Harvest a decent experience. Young obviously worked very hard on this, and the result is professional! The problem is … well, it’s boring!! It’s not even the same level of boring that his previous albums; this brings it to a whole new degree. The experience is a bit like going to a very clean and big budget museum, but none of the exhibits are interesting. It’s too professional and earnest to ever warrant hurling insults at it, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it. The lyrics are fine and I can see how this album would be popular among the tone deaf, but the melodies and instrumentation overall fall short. Each song is a different case, of course! I think “Heart of Gold” has a great melody and well-conceived instrumentation. It’s a major classic rock staple, and why shouldn’t it be? “Old Man” is alright. The melody is pretty awful, but the instrumentation turned out to be well done (featuring a banjo!) and it develops well enough to keep me engaged. … Some of the album’s weaker bits included the fan-favorite “Harvest” with one of the most uninteresting melodies on the album. (I seem to be alone in my distaste for “Harvest.” I don’t know what’s wrong with me.) For “Alabama,” Young was kind enough to give us some crunchy guitars! But then he betrayed us by not doing anything else, musically, interesting with it. Young imports the London Symphony Orchestra for two of these tracks. “A Man Needs a Maid” proved to be well orchestrated with evolving textures and an extremely beautiful piano to boot. But the LSO-accompanied “There’s a World” goes absolutely nowhere and the orchestration is just awful. That’s the worst track of the album by far, and it alone should disqualify Harvest from being on any best-of lists. The biggest betrayal of them all was this was a terribly uncreative album, which was uncharacteristic of Young. Better rotate those crops for the next album! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Time Fades Away (1973)Album Score: 12Because no prolific rock star’s discography cannot be complete with at least one impossible-to-find album with a reputation of being *very* good, Neil Young decided to follow suit with this live album that features all new material… And for my money, it’s better than anything he released previously to this point (well, it’s better than Harvest at least). It’s been theorized that the reason this album is unavailable is because Young reportedly had a horrible time on the tour for various reasons … one of which his fans were not interested whatsoever in going to his concerts and hearing him play new tunes. Making it worse is these songs are far removed from the style of Harvest and much more rock ‘n’ roll oriented. Understandably, it betrayed the audience! Also, apparently, the group members weren’t quite on good terms with each other. But heck! I listen to this album and think it’s awesome. I can say, unflinchingly, that this is the first Neil Young album in his discography that I’m not bored with whatsoever. The sound is rough, Young’s voice has never been uglier, the sound recording quality is murky as hell (and that’s enhanced by my copy since it’s a vinyl rip)… and the result points that this is the ultimate way to experience Neil Young: Rough & ugly. There is not one song on here that isn’t good. The album starts with “Time Fades Away,” a throwback to Dylan with bouncy instrumentation and a very catchy melody. After that, he delivers a very heartfelt performance with just a piano in “Journey Through the Past” … he’s not concentrating on how pretty his voice sounds; he just cares about singing. “Yonder Stands the Sinner” is a bit of very sloppy riff rock … it’s probably another reason why everyone likes calling him the Godfather of grunge! Sloppiness abounds, but it’s utterly fun and catchy. The quality of the work hardly diminishes for the forth track “LA.” That’s a bit of a throwback to “Cinnamon Girl,” but it’s just about as good. That’s amazingly beautiful considering the band were reportedly not in top form. Interestingly, the nine-minute track at the end “Last Dance” is one of the best. Usually, his nine-minute songs strike me as being fillery… but it was just the ticket for this live setting. Who the hell knows why this album hasn’t been officially released on CD… because it’s a fantastic work! Until they come to their senses and release it, then FIND A BOOTLEG OR SOMETHING!!! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
On the Beach (1974)Album Score: 12It’s funny that the moment when the mass populace seemed to abandon Neil Young in droves, his music gets better. In my eyes, this album is vastly superior to the following: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Harvest and Déjà Vu. I don’t say this just to be a weirdo; it’s what I actually think. That ultra-polished, ultra-careful and ultra-boring Neil Young of Harvest is gone in favor of rawer, sloppier and more earnest replacement. What’s more, this album actually has diversity meaning that it sounds fresh throughout unlike the previous albums that suffered from saminess. The first four songs are awesome!! “Walk On” is a rather bouncy rock song with a catchy melody and bouncy instrumentation. Before, Young rarely let himself sound so sloppy… But that’s exactly how he should sound. After all, he’s the Godfather of Grunge, right? … He already had an awful voice; ugly instrumentation was the only missing link. For Young it seems, the more undisciplined he is the better … as long as he’s keeping the well-written melodies, earnest ambitions and instrumentation ability intact. Young changes up the mood to deliver a ballad for the second track. The instrumentation is very raw and features a distorted electric piano (that gives it good texture) and a phenomenally engaging vocal melody. As good as those two songs were, he changes things up wonderfully with the mean and driving “Revolution Blues.” It’s arguably the best song he had written until this point (it’s definitely the most hard rocking song he had ever released). Thanks to the skillful instrumentation (including a finger melting electric guitar solo), it’s a complete blast to listen to. He changes styles completely after that for the refreshing “Turnstiles,” which features Young singing to a simple banjo and a noodly guitar. Despite all the goodness contained in the first four tracks, this isn’t quite the perfect album… Although the album’s weak spots are certainly stronger than the weak spots on his more celebrated works. “On the Beach” and “Ambulance Blues” probably constitute the weakest points, but that’s mostly because there wasn’t a compelling reason to make them so lengthy! Nonetheless, they’re fine songs, and still worth investing the time it takes to listen. I’ve appreciated every single Neil Young album released until this point, but this (and the currently unavailable Time Fades Away) mark the earliest occasions when I actually enjoyed his work. COOL! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Tonight's the Night (1975)Album Score: 12There’s a legend behind this album (and a true one, at that). Though this was released in 1975, it was recorded in 1973, before On the Beach was recorded, and meant as the follow-up to Young’s massive commercial success Harvest. The record company listened to this album and rejected it. It was completely unlike Harvest. The sound was looser, rawer and Young was singing as sloppily as ever (at one point even sounding like a frog croaking). There was next-to-no studio production; it was just Young and his band. It was shelved for a couple years and released in 1975. When that happened, the general public’s response wasn’t strong except for a number of fans and critics who thought it was his utter masterpiece. The story goes deeper than that… Young’s guitarist Danny Whitten and a roadie named Bruce Berry both died of drug overdoses, and Young was terribly depressed about it. That’s, supposedly, why the album is so sloppy! I think this is one of his best albums, too… I kinda wish I could rate it higher, but some of the tracks are clearly more inspired than others. The first two tracks are undoubtedly the best. “Tonight’s the Night” has a fine melody, but the main attraction is the instrumentation! Utterly genuine… and it makes me imagine that I am hearing them up close and personal in a lounge club. Right after that is a mid-tempo blues with Young absolutely singing like he means it. Unfortunately, the album doesn’t quite inspire me again like those two did… but many come alarmingly close. “Word on a String” is a half-hard rock song with a mean riff (and Young singing like it was supposed to be a ballad). “Borrowed Tune” consists of Young singing a Rolling Stones melody very passionately to a piano… genuine! “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” is notable for being a 1970 live recording that featured Whitten on vocals and guitar… It’s not a particularly soulful song--- just a very catchy hard-rock song. The album drops off rather unfortunately after that point and simply wallows in “goodness.” It sounds more like regular Neil Young instead of the “soul bearing and depressed” Neil Young, but that’s OK. The melodies are fine, but not uniformly impressive. One MAJOR gem on the second half that needs talking about is “Tired Eyes.” That’s a soul-tugging ballad with a strange unearthly quality that I wish I could describe… It’s just one of those special songs. He really tapped into a vibe there… In conclusion, I guess this is more proof that the best Neil Young albums aren’t going to be what the record company wanted. Though I’m sure it was best to wait until 1975 to release this… Surely the public didn’t mind as much that it’s not anything like Harvest, and those who cared were probably just grateful that they were getting to hear it in the first place. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Zuma (1975)Album Score: 10This seems to be when Neil Young started to really take the form of the Godfather of Grunge … He lets the guitars get SLOPPY. All over the place, there’s slop!!! Of course, that’s a fitting sound for him since his voice is so ugly. I love the guitars, for the most part, but underneath it all, it’s a musically average album for Young. There seems to be an intrinsic lack of memorable melodic ideas, and the arrangements aren’t very compelling (some moments and ideas just seem bad, frankly). Apart from those fuzzy guitars, there’s nothing particularly unique about this album… It’s a lot tamer than Tonight’s the Night though just about as disciplined (and not as imaginative) as On the Beach. I’m just not thrilled with any of this… There’s a lot of grit though not enough real spirit… I take a very ho-hum attitude with Zuma. That said, remember who we’re dealing with here. All in all, it’s quite excellent, and the weak spots are few. The guy is genuine, and you have to give him credit for getting away with such a voice and not really giving a crap about how pretty it is. He sings his songs the way he wants, and he comes off like he means it. His lyrics aren’t exactly Dylanesque, but the earnestness definitely counts for something! Though none of that forgives the fact that Zuma is musically a step down, and the music is where it counts for me, by golly! The album opener is a mid-tempo and rather normal rocker “Don’t Cry No Tears.” It’s certainly one of the stronger and more pieces with a very brief running time, likable melody, thoughtful lyrics and modestly sloppy guitars. Can’t say I like it enough to put it on my next mix tape, but … well, it’s nice! “Danger Bird” is entertaining though plagued a bit by its unnecessary seven-minute running length. That said, the ballad “Cortez the Killer” is also seven minutes long and actually very good and even somewhat endearing. It opens with a four-minute melodic guitar solo and then Young delivers what’s probably the best melody of the album. I like “Barstool Blues” even if it’s rather inconsequential. The melody is good and Young’s weak-weak-weak vocals are kind of funny. It’s enjoyable, at least. “Stupid Girl” is also well done with interesting structure, but I don’t think that one turned out particularly well. This album surely would have scored higher had Young kept “Lookin’ For a Love” and “Through My Sails” off. The former, especially. It’s a generic country ballad. And when I say “generic,” I mean that it’s GENERIC. There’s nothing original about it, not even a little bit. Apparently, it was meant for a Harvest clone that he recorded but never released… It would have sucked on that album, too, but here it’s worse. It doesn’t fit the rest of the material, which makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Horrible. (Actually, it’s not the world’s worst ditty… I just like to pick on it.) “Through My Sails,” though not such a bad song in itself, was the worst thing he could have ended the album with. The problem with it is not just it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the material, but it’s BORING. Zzzz! So, that’s Zuma according to me. Essential for the fans, but anyone else can take it or leave it. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
American Stars 'N Bars (1977)Album Score: 11I like this quite a bit more than Zuma, and that’s comforting since I thought I might have been Neil Young’d out when I wrote that review. The first half of the album is some of the most tasteful country-rock imaginable (sometimes even breaking out of the norm and being *beautiful*), and the second half is a mixed hodgepodge… but it contains one of Young’s most signature songs “Like a Hurricane,” and that’s good enough for me! Young gets the album off perfectly on track with “The Old Country Waltz,” a likable song with stellar instrumentation. Listen to the violinist and slide guitarist especially… The violin sounds utterly human (as opposed to playing mindless hillbilly cliches) and the slide guitarist is fantastic. In my limited experience listening to country-rock, it seems that the quality of the slide guitarist is a make-it-or-break-it thing. Too many times, I’ve listened to the genre and thought the slide guitar work was positively vomit inducing. Much more rarely, as it is here, it’s gorgeous and an utter joy to listen to. The slide guitarist makes his most impressive showing, however, in “Hey Babe.” BEAUTIFUL! It also helps that it also contains one of Young’s finest melodies! Nothing else so special on the first side, unfortunately, but everything is solid and likable. “Saddle Up the Palomino” is nicely instrumented but I don’t care much for that riff and melody. “Hold Back the Tears” strikes me as being too common, and “Star of Bethlehem” is a tad boring. … Of course these are all good songs anyway! After that, things start getting inconsistent. Apparently it’s a bunch of leftovers from earlier recording sessions and albums never recorded. I can’t bring myself to hate “Will to Love,” but it is a positively underwhelming song consisting of Young strumming his acoustic guitar and rambling for seven minutes by the campfire (apparently). “Meh” to that one. The album closer “Homegrown” isn’t too great, either… it’s average. I wouldn’t have even liked it from someone other than Neil Young. But then there’s “Like a Hurricane!” Talk about a mixed second half, this is (so far) my favorite Neil Young song! The melody is catchier than anything and that electric guitar solo (which takes up a significant chunk of its eight minutes) is phenomenal. If nothing else, you should listen to that one!! Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Comes a Time (1978)Album Score: 10Gotta love the way this starts! (This album; not this shoddy review I’m writing.) “Goin’ Back” and “Comes a Time” are two of the most laid-back and tuneful songs I’ve heard come out of Neil Young’s mouth… frankly, I’m surprised that neither of them are more highly acclaimed. The first one, especially, features wonderful arrangements! Those strings beat out similar types of arrangements that he did in Harvest hugely. The latter even has nice string arrangements and especially nice back-up vocals from Nicolette Larson (who he kept around after American Stars ‘N Bars). I’m also fond of the album closer, “Four Strong Winds.” The melody doesn’t strike such a chord, but it’s still pretty good… It’s a breezy sort of song that you can space out to it and it’ll put a smile on your face. Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t follow suit with the compelling nature of them. ‘Tis a shame! “Look Out For Love” is fine enough, and he’s bringing back the fuzz guitars, but I miss the melody more than anything… “Lotta Love” has got to be the shoddiest thing on the whole album… a pounding thing that does absolutely nothing! “Human Highway” marks a nice return to the laid-back mentality of the two openers even though there’s a somewhat empty quality about it (remember, I’m not talking about the lyrics… which I’m sure are fine…). But at least he does the instrumentation right there; if that’s for one reason, it’s the BANJO! “Field of Opportunity” suffers from being utterly generic. It seems like every country western song has a melody like it… Not that there’s anything extremely wrong with being generic, but he’s sort of playing in default mode there. He does nothing special to it, so I don’t have to especially like it. “Motorcycle Mama” is a nice bit of roots-rock, though it fails to inspire me, and it also suffers from its overabundance of cliches (though give credit to Larson whose pretty, soulful vocals overpowers Young’s troublesome whine)! This was obviously meant as a follow-up to Harvest, six years later. As you might expect, it sold like hotcakes!!! Well… the fans got a few good tunes out of this, I think, but this work is pretty far from his best. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Rust Never Sleeps (1979)Album Score: 13Well, this is something that doesn’t happen too often. As soon as an artist realizes he’s irrelevant he does nothing in terms of changing his sound, but he comes to terms with it… and ends up releasing an album that destroys his back catalogue. It’s not a perfect album by any means, but … well, it’s great. Lemme splain. Not only does Young sound more honest (and stable) than he’s ever been before, but the overall melodies haven’t been richer. The lyrics are such that I became intensely interested in delving into them more deeply meaning that this will be an album I will be revisiting frequently in the future, above most others. Sure, a handful of the tracks are clearly less-than-perfect, and there was only one song that I felt wholly deserved a coveted A+ rating, but … hell, this is a great, classic album that everybody should hear. The most appealing aspect of it, to me, is that it’s easily his best put-together ALBUM. This is far from having a patchy, leftover feel of Zuma or American Stars ‘N Bars. It starts out as a simple folk album with just Young, his guitar and harmonica. But the album actually evolves to eventually incorporate fuzz guitars louder and uglier than he had ever done before. This transition is surprisingly subtle, and rather brilliant! He delivers the lines to the opening track, “My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue),” with as much earnestness as I’ve ever heard from him… There, he’s revealing his whole outlook on the then-current music biz, which was then-overrun with the freshly emerged second wave. Though, already by 1979, the punk rockers had already made their mark and were “burning out” (as opposed to “fading away” like he says Elvis did). This is followed-up with the endearing “Thrasher,” which continues to sound earnest (though not as solidly melodic). “Pocahontas” is the mark of something a little more interesting… Though another light, folky number by heart, there’s the hint of new on the horizon, musically. Hear those weird sound effects that sounds like someone’s rasping an electric guitar the wrong way… Call me crazy, but I also think I hear someone playing a recorder and someone else playing … er … bongos? (Oh that’s a great song by the way… yeah, I’m talking about the melody.) “Sail Away” ends up being somewhat shrug-worthy, but you hear a real drumbeat for the first time. Even somewhat missable, but it’s there… And then, he subtly turns electric with the sensational song “Powderfinger!” Oh, and he does it right too, even delivering a lengthy, beautiful electric guitar solo. Wonderful! “Welfare Mothers” turns up the rock ‘n’ roll up another notch … maybe too much of a notch since that’s the only song on the album that’s not especially endearing. It’s not a bad tune, but it’s the only thing here that actually sounds somewhat banal. Still, it’s hard to deny that I can’t get caught up in the beat, and it does have plenty of spirit. Knowing that he couldn’t get harder rocking than that one, he decides to turn up the fuzz with the absolutely mean sounding “Sedan Delivery,” which makes similar work done in Zuma sound like small potatoes. It’s the sort of ugly song that really gives this Godfather of Grunge title plenty of credence… It’s also very melodic, which means it’s better than the majority of grunge songs. But it’s not until the very end that Young delivers the album’s real gem… And, the funny part is that we’ve actually heard it before. Yes, it’s a reworking of the album opener except with lotsa electric guitars. The guitar tones are even fuzzier than the previous track even though it sounds rather robotic and industrial… These rhythms are interesting and even somewhat innovative (especially considering “industrial” is an actual genre that would emerge sometime in the ‘80s). Of course, the electric guitars make that song what it is. That interesting album development is exactly the sort of thing I long to hear in albums… and I can’t say I’ve heard it done like this before. And this well, too! I’ve done a pretty thorough job telling the world that I’m not much of a Neil Young fan… but this album really seemed to have changed my mind. …Oh, and I haven’t told you the punch line yet; this was all done live. Yup. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Live Rust (1979)Album Score: 12Neil Young was no stranger to making live albums. By my calculation this is fourth official live release. However, this is his first one he did that contained material from his back catalogue... What can I say? The guy loved the rough and raw sound, and it's probably best to get that sound when you have a killer band in front of an audience! This was the immediate follow-up to his wildly successful Rust Never Sleeps (also a live album), and this even contains quite a few songs from it. There are “Powderfinger,” “Sedan Delivery” and both versions of “My My, Hey Hey.” It does seem odd that he'd record so many live versions the same year especially when these versions are going to sound worse than the originals! But let's not dwell on it. Also like Rust Never Sleeps, Young's repeating his idea to start the album with his acoustic songs and ending with the harder rocking, heavily distorted stuff. I like that idea, and it's fine that he's doing it again albeit not quite as effective this time around. Despite that this is a traditional live album, he still found time to give us two songs here that we haven't heard before, and they open the album. Today, “Sugar Mountain” seems to be one of his more well-known tunes, and why not? It has a likable melody! “I Am a Child” is weaker and probably the worst overall section on the album, but it's still pretty good. I probably wouldn't have opened the album with those, but it doesn't really make a major difference anyhow. The third track is a stripped down version of “Comes a Time.” I loved the melody to begin with, and he gives it a lovely rendition here. I probably would have chosen this to open the album, but what do I know? Next, he plays “After the Gold Rush,” a song that I never cared much for and this live album confirmed those sentiments. But, proving that I will ultimately never understand Neil Young fans, the crowd goes hog-wild throughout this performance. Dorks. In the middle of the album, he surprises me and pulls up “The Loner” from his debut. He does away with those cinematic arrangements that gave me such delight in the original, and just uses 'lectric guitar accompaniment. But that doesn't stop it from being a great rendition! This version sounds much meaner, too, and I'd understand why some fans would like this version better. I think his rendition of “The Needle and the Damage Done” (the only selection from his bestseller Harvest) is much better than the original, which I had written off as BORING. But this version sounds much meatier. That is, it isn't soul-sucking, and I'm left to enjoy its well-written melody. “Cinnamon Girl” isn't nearly as good as the original, however. Part of me thinks he had to obligingly play it, because that's what the fans wanted to hear. Eh. Anyway, he didn't give it nearly the amount of attention as his superb adaption of “Like a Hurricane!” I heard it on the album version and immediately fell in love with it! Well, here it is again in all its glory with its thunderous melody and the most rollicking guitar solo ever. Hair metal fans, if they dare get a load of that, should note that their favorite guitarists are girls. “Cortez the Killer” is also worth mentioning. While I have to prefer the original version on a sonic basis, this new rendition is particularly engaging. Perhaps it's even more soul-tugging, because I curiously want to hang onto his words more closely. He saves the best for last, “Tonight's the Night.” HOLY CRAP, THAT GUITAR SOLO! ... And that's it to say about it! Even though I think many of these songs sounded better on the original versions, Young-heads would be at a severe loss without this album in their collection. His revisions of some of this material are easily worth their weight. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Hawks & Doves (1980)Album Score: 9Neil Young is the sort of artist who can do almost anything, and I can't criticize him too much. I get the impression that every turn that he made in his career, for better or worse, had been wholly intentional... And, who the hell am I to criticize Young for doing something that he wanted to! Especially if it's something as starkly noncommercial as Hawks & Doves. In fact, this seems so insubstantial that it's proud of it. There's no other way to explain it. It's like a demo tape. It isn't even a half-hour long! The first half is either folk or folk-rock, and it contains material written between 1974 to 1977. It opens up with “Little Wing,” a too-brief acoustic folk song that was originally written with Jimi Hendrix. I do like the melody, but I wish it was a little bit more memorable and substantive. But sure, the laid-back atmosphere does sit nicely with me, and I can enjoy it fine as long as I'm not expecting too much from it. “The Old Homestead,” however, is much more difficult to like. It goes on for a whopping seven minutes, and it repeats the same old ideas over and over again. It sounds to me like he was trying to channel Bob Dylan, but he didn't quite manage it. Nonetheless, the song doesn't actually bomb, which is surprising considering its length. “Lost in Space” was nothing but a lost opportunity. The chorus is beautiful, but the rest of it is toneless, and Young seems to get in these awful, acoustic-guitar ruts all the time. They keep bogging it down! “Captain Kennedy,” a British folk number, is easily the most out-of-place song here. It's wholly generic, but I ended up enjoying it, because I'm a sucker for British folk! The second half contains material that was written recently and was actually intended for this album. It is country oriented. The purest highlight is “Union Man.” Sure, the melody is a little hokey, but I enjoyed Young's surprisingly spirited, lighthearted performance. That performance was so warmly welcomed that a very similar song without the warm performance, “Comin' Apart at Every Nail,” doesn't come even remotely close to topping it. “Stayin' Power” is OK Americana, and “Coastline” is fairly decent boogie-woogie, but both of their reasons of being is that gorgeous violin, which turns up occasionally to treats us to a real show! The final track is also the title track, and it's easily the most Young-like composition. The guitar tones are much darker (though a very far cry from Rust Never Sleeps sounds), and his characteristic harmonic style can be picked up from a mile's distance. Even though I really enjoy how it started, it becomes quickly evident that he wasn't going to take it anywhere interesting. It just sort of hovers and then fizzes out. The end result is a lost opportunity... it's a potentially brilliant song that was spoiled due to a lack of imagination. Oh well. I can't say this is a *bad* album since Neil Young didn't have any ambitions for it. However, I can say with a degree of confidence that this isn't a *good* album! Its only audience is the fans... Fortunately for them, there's surely enough here to make it worth their while. But I don't think even the die-hard fans would find this coming out of their stereos that often. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Re-ac-tor (1981)Album Score: 10Neil Young's previous album was a half-baked folk and country album Hawks & Doves. Re-ac-tor is more of a half-baked hard-rock album. I'm sure all his fans were delighted with Young in the early '80s. Here they were, sitting on the edge of their seats, hoping that Young would record another Americana album. And they were all treated to this goofy thing. No matter how you look at it, Re-ac-tor is an utterly inconsequential album that has many shortcomings. You can live a perfectly fantastic life without ever listening to it. But then again, isn't life inconsequential? We're all going to die and get sucked back into the earth in the end, so what's the big deal? I listened to Re-ac-tor, and I thought it was a blast-and-a-half! I'd imagine that Young was finished being touted as “important” throughout his career, and he just wanted to be a dumb old rock star. What else could explain a song like “T-Bone?” It consists of a single riff repeated for nine-minutes straight whilst Young continuously belts out “Got mashed potato!! Ain't got no t-bone!” Normally, I have trouble sitting through nine-minute songs that just repeats the same freaking thing over and over again, but not this time. When it's over, I have already joined in the merry mayhem! I want to do the air guitar and scream “AIN'T GOT NO T-BONE!!!!” (I don't, though, because I'm too much of a victim of rationality.) Besides, the guitar is impressive, and they do a fantastic job littering it up with different tones and textures. That was a lot of fun, but the best song of the album is easily “Opera Star.” Simply put, it has the best melody; it is incredibly catchy and even memorable. It's difficult not to also mention those crunchy and excellent guitars. Plus, unlike many of the other songs, it's not just a single riff being repeated over and over again... it actually has a chorus! Plus, the lyrics are funny and so is Young, who is sounding spirited and more-cartoonish-than-usual. A lot of fans enjoy “Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleeze,” and I like it, too. That melody is catchy, and it does have somewhat of an aura of “greatness,” but unfortunately it ended up coming a little short in that goal. That one would have needed some more studio work, and I just don't find it nearly as gut-bustingly enjoyable as the two other songs I highlighted. “Get Back On It” is an ordinary and non-noteworthy boogie, which is a really odd thing to hear Young do. (That is, if you haven't gotten a load of Everybody's Rockin' yet.) “Rapid Transit” is another guitar-heavy number that revisits those aimless proto-metal psychedelic days, and it's not bad. And just to be cute, “Southern Pacific” has drum beat that sounds like a train. I'd say 70 percent of the world's population will dislike the album closer, “Shots.” Like “T-Bone” is an incredibly over-extended guitar-heavy piece... except about every 10 seconds, there's some sort of machine gun sound effect. Some listeners might be annoyed with that, but others will concentrate their attention to that 'lectric guitar, which continues to play through the whole thing. Why, it's patriotic in a way. I did like Re-ac-tor, but I'm not going to recommend it. For Young newbies, this is completely uncharacteristic of him. And the Young oldies probably resent his entire career in the '80s. But speaking for me, when it's all said and done, I believe I'd rather listen to Young act like a total doofus than write another album of bloated, pretentious country songs! But that's just me. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Trans (1982)Album Score: 10This album has been so fondly embraced by the music listening community that you can't even find it on CD anymore. But just because Neil Young decided to enter the Kraftwerk territory of Electronica, it doesn't mean that people shouldn't listen to it! I understand the objections to it, though. I can imagine some still-devoted fan in 1982 buying this album and feeling absolutely horrified when it was first put on the turntable. ELECTRONIC STUFF IN A NEIL YOUNG RECORD! GAHH!!!! Young's fanbase were making the transformation into middle-aged yuppies, and electronica wasn't cool to them. You might think Young would've picked up some younger fans in the process, but everything he tried in Trans had been pretty well-covered since the mid-'70s. Compare it to the likes of Sweet Dreams and The Age of Plastic and it's immediately obvious how primitive this album is... But I like Trans! It's charming and frequently melodious. These electronic experiments are not actually bad whatsoever. Yes! Everyone in the world should like Trans! However, the album opener, “The Thing Called Love,” isn't electronic at all. It's a straightforward and simple pop-rock ditty. Call it trite, if you wish, but I enjoy the melody, the upbeat pace and that catchy riff. But after that, it's electronica-ville! “Computer Age” is the first one, and it's catchy!!! That simple synthesizer and drum machine pattern is quiet, charming and rather alluring. Plus, if you listen closely enough, you can hear him noodling around with his guitar! Neil Young, it is you! He sings much of this through a vocoder ... which manages to sound both ridiculous and awesome. If you still have doubts about this electronica turn, then you should at least give “We R in Control” a listen. That snyth-groove is not only catchy, but it's menacing. I think if he was a little more skilled in electronica, there might have been a thicker atmosphere there, but it's perfectly fine the way it is. Incredibly simple but fun to listen to. His vocoder takes on a robot role as it declares that it controls pretty much everything in the world. That's a fun little ode to the technical age! (Those electronic beep noises toward the end were a nice touch, too. The robots don't have to speak English anymore... they can do whatever they want.) “Transformer Man” is ballad sung entirely with the vocoder. There, the experiment had grown a little tiresome. But even that song isn't without its charm! If you thought those electronic songs were “bad,” you haven't heard anything yet until you get a load of “Sample and Hold.” That's an eight-minute-long electro-pop monstrosity! Well, it would have surely made a better four-minute song, but I did enjoy listening to that dark and distorted electro world Young invented for himself there. That vocoder-ridden chorus also comes out as utterly charming. Just to smite his fans, I think, he also comes out with a very choppy, electro version of “Mr. Soul,” one of his more well-revered compositions from those golden Buffalo Springfield years. I would love to say that this version is somehow superior to the original, but the gimmick becomes old quickly, unfortunately. But even then, it's really not as bad as you think it would be. And then there was the 10-minute closer, “Like an Inca.” The most surprising thing about that one is it's the most typical Neil Young song recorded ever since Rust Never Sleeps! No synthesizers, no vocoder, no drum machines—nothing but electric guitars, drums and Young's voice. That obviously freakishly huge running length is my biggest complaint about the song, but I do dig that song's catchy riff and excellent flow. Young even noodles his electric guitar through this, which is always something that pleases the fans. ... So, the betrayed the former hippie who was still faithfully buying Young's records wasn't completely out of luck. I just hope he or she didn't destroy the record before getting to the end. Of course, I gave this album review a lot of praise mostly because it's such an under-loved album! This falls quite a distance short of what's needed to be a *great* album. But Trans has all that's necessary to be a good album, and it deserves that recognition. Just to add, in 85 percent of the reviews of this album I read, everyone seems to mention that the whole vocoder experiment was Young's means to find a way to communicate with his newly born son with cerebral palsy. The public didn't know that his personal life was in such turmoil at the time, either, and I guess that also might explain this so-called turbulent period of his career. (But these albums are pretty fun! Whoever says that Young released only bad albums in the '80s will get popped in the mouth BY ME!) Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Everybody's Rockin' (1983)Album Score: 8An epinions user was kind enough to point out that in one of my Band reviews, I had been writing “rockability” instead of “rockabilly.” I've been writing “rockability” instead of “rockabilly” ever since I started writing music reviews. (I've also been known to write “straight-laced” instead of “straitlaced” and “dribble” instead of “drivel.” I really appreciate that correction! So, to all you grammar nerds out there: If there are anymore things you see that I'm repeatedly doing wrong, please correct me! It won't make me feel bad, and it would be a good chance for you to flex your ego.) That came just in time, because I was just about to review Neil Young's rockabilly 1983 album Everybody's Rockin' ..................... Er, wait. What's that? Neil Young had a rockabilly album? Yes sir, he did! After his discombobulating decision to release an electronica album in 1982, he follows it up with old school rockabilly! (I'm still getting used to that term, so I have to write it in italics. Don't worry—it's only temporary.) The story behind this album is more interesting than the album itself. Right after Young released it, he was sued by the record label, Geffen, for making these unexpected and “uncharacteristic” albums! It's one of the most notorious artist/company battles in history and one that continues to fascinate us to this day. (There's a rumor going around that the only reason that Young recorded that Phil Collins-esque 1986 album Landing on Water was just to further piss them off.) The story doesn't end there... Geffen wouldn't even let Young finish the album, which explains why this thing is only 25 minutes long! It's nice that the album has an interesting history behind it, because I sure don't care for the songs. You can get a chuckle out of that whole lawsuit business, but you can't deny that the record company had a point. Who the heck wants to hear a Neil Young do rockabilly with that Mickey Mouse voice of his? Furthermore, he had no connection to that genre, either, so this decision was completely out of left-field. At least John Lennon had those credentials before he released Rock 'n' Roll. What's more, many of these are covers... I don't ever remember Neil Young doing covers before! But anyway, like it or not, here it is: Rockabilly. (OK, I've graduated. I can write the word without italics now.) The album opens with an incredibly annoying rendition of “Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes.” Neil Young's whiny little voice isn't the main problem (although that certainly contributes). It's that freaking saxophone that comes in during the final third! It's mixed very loudly and plays a five-note loop that eventually grows very grating to the nerves! Yeouch! “Rainin' in My Heart” has a pianist that screws everything up. He's pounding away at that freaking instrument like he's in a freaking earthquake. I mean... Geez! Give it a rest, daddy-o, willya? The worst song of them all is surprisingly one of the originals, and it's the album's least generic. “Wonderin'” is done using the exact same sort of instrumentation as the other tracks, but that chord progression is completely wrong for it. It might have worked with different instruments, but as it stands, that's such a confused little song that's utterly painful to hear. Almost as if Young learned his lesson, the album's second half is considerably better than the first. Well, the sort of the songs are still derivative, but they're far less annoying. “Jellyroll Man” is a fun doo-wop tune with a catchy melody and some actual drive in the instrumentation. The presentation of “Mystery Train” is cute with an appropriate “chugga chugga” drum beat and some “woo-woos” from the back-up singers. However, the real highlight is “Everybody's Rockin'.” Surely, Young lifted that melody and style from the royalty-free format that every pop star in the '50s was stealing from. But at least it's a fun tune with some cute lyrics for anyone willing to pay attention to those. What really made the song was that final squeal from the saxophone. ... You can tell how bored I was to be delighted with little things like that... I will close this review by restating something I said in an earlier Neil Young review: I can't really fault him for this album, because this was really something he wanted to do. It sounds half-baked, but we have to give him some slack because of his family situation, and the fact that this was a beefy middle finger to his record label who kept on trying to press him to make “characteristic” albums. So, it's not like he thought this was going to be any good. As far as rockabilly goes, this is OK. It's nothing I'm ever going to listen to again, and I would be surprised if there are more than two people in the world who listen to this more than once a year... Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Old Ways (1985)Album Score: 9Oh, how I hate country music! I used to live in the Midwest, and they would play this stuff all the time in church services and convenience store rest rooms. I'm so glad to have been liberated from country-western's evil grasp ... until now. I was minding my own business listening to Neil Young's discography, and he sics a country-western album on me! Boooooooooo! Yup, I have a bias, and you can adjust the tone of this review to fit your own views of country western. Despite the fact that I hate the genre, at least Neil Young seemed more at home here than he had been in previous albums. Surely, doing a straight country album was the closest he had gotten to his classic sound ever since Comes a Time. Nonetheless, this still wasn't what the critics and his long-time fans longed to hear, and this certainly isn't what his label wanted. According to Young, he tried releasing a country album titled Old Ways a few years before this release, but they rejected it and wanted a rock album instead. Young, being a smartass, released Everybody's Rockin'. So I guess that must be why the label finally caved in and let him do a country album rather than bearing through whatever horrors the dude would unleash next! Even as someone who professes to hating the genre, half of these songs are worth hearing. The opener “The Wayward Wind,” the album's only cover, is as pleasant as warm sunshine! It's also fairly cliché, but Young's decision to put in these scaling string tracks (that sound like the wind) lends it a unique texture. “Get Back to the Country” is a bona fide hillbilly hoedown song, and of course those things are fun to begin with! But that Jew's harp boinging around makes it even more giddy and bubbly. “Old Ways” is closer to The Rolling Stones circa Beggars Banquet than straight country, and it's better for that. Young's vocal performance actually has a bit of a snarl to it, and he's surprisingly convincing at it! That's clearly one of the album's highlights, but nothing can get better than that bittersweet “My Boy,” which is easily one of Young's best '80s songs. It is very close to his classic style, and it's better for that in my opinion. Not only is the melody original (thus far removed from being genuine *country*), but so are the chord progressions. The instrumentals feature some brilliant, melancholic fiddle and slide guitar... this is a strong example of great ways to utilize those instrumentals. I also enjoyed listening to “Bound For Glory.” The rhythm might be way too simplistic, and its running length seems too overextended, but I really like the melody! That's another songs that isn't *really* country. (Or maybe it is ... I'm probably just calling the songs I like “not really country” to justify liking them!) OK, let's talk about the crap now. “Once an Angel” is terrible. It's a gospel-country song that trudges along at a snail's pace. The slide guitar is well-played, but it ends up just making it more dreary. Icky, icky stuff. “Misfits” has interesting orchestration (most notably a female back-up singer that sounds a little like a ghost). For that reason, it had a lot of potential, but it was misfired a bit. The melody is very repetitive and boring, and I would have rethought that very clunky rhythm. I like “California Sunset,” but it doesn't do anything that any old country musician could do. I don't want to listen to any old country musician! I want to listen to Neil Young!!! The second half of this album is overwhelmingly better than the first, but the closing track, “Where is the Highway Tonight,” is very weak. That's an incredibly dull country-western tune with a boring melody, and it also goes at a snail's pace... I mean, if you're going to write all these slow songs, the least you could do is make them beautiful instead of flat and dreary. Bluh! In the end, Old Ways is hardly a bad album, and I certainly like it more than that quizzical Everybody's Rockin'. At least Young seems like he's in his element. It's certainly worth listening to, especially if you're a Neil Young fan who had avoided this record for some reason. I'm sure you'll enjoy listening to half of this album, so that's worth something. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Landing on Water (1986)Album Score: 9It was 1986, and Young's unpredictable stylistic turns were hardly ready to end! After releasing that country album, Old Ways he took another 180-degree turn and made an '80s pop album in a similar vein of Michael Jackson, Phil Collins and Madonna. Synthesizers, robo-rhythms and stupid chord progressions abounds in this release! Of course, Young already had an electronic album under his belt, Trans, but that album sounded like Kraftwerk. This sounds like he was trying to mimic what was currently on the pop radio. I'm going to subscribe to the fan theory about this album. As I mentioned in previous Young reviews, his record label Geffen had sued Young for making “uncharacteristic” albums, and Landing on Water was just another way to piss them off! That's hilarious, but people were still subject to the music in it! Unfortunately, this album continued to alienate his longtime fans (who probably abandon him at this point), and this album is so clunky and amateurish sounding that there's no way Phil-Collins-loving teenagers would ever want to hear it. So, is there an audience for this album? Yes. Me! There are a handful of songs that get on my nerves, but I get a kick out of the rest of them. They're so goofy and sardonic that I have giggled frequently. Young probably wasn't given much of a budget for this album and so he and his lead guitarist was left to produce it themselves. That explains why this thing sounds so homemade... Since he fashioned much of this off of '80s stadium rock, he has loud drums. But instead of that full-bodied sound that you would have commonly heard from the era, these seem tinny. They're not even drum machines, but a real guy thwacking at them in a robotic fashion. Generally, I like the drums, and there are some interesting, intricate rhythms. But occasionally, this sound will get on my nerves, and the rhythms they find don't work that well with the overall song. They were also favoring the raw guitar sound to those ultra-polished keyboard sounds probably also due to the lack of budget. There are also a few times when Young shreds his guitar. These parts are usually reduced to background “noise,” but they're quite impressive and fun to hear. Even though the guitar is the central sound, there are keyboards, but they tend to be really weak sounding and occasionally annoying. In the end, I can't say that I've heard an album quite like Landing on Water. Take that for what its worth! He opens the album with an especially weak number titled “Weight of the World.” The groove is very odd. The drum beat contains a few tight rolls in it, and it features a keyboard riff that seems muted. I listened to that song a number of times thinking that I might finally get into it after awhile, but it only ended up just annoying me. I like the ideas, but I hate the clumsiness of it. The second track is “Violent Side,” which sounds much smoother and both the groove and the melody are interesting to me. Again, that tinny drum set is a bit too loud, but I can take it there! “Bad News Beat” isn't bad for a song consisting of two chords (and two other chords for a brief chorus). I like that rapid keyboard groove and that uncouth drum beat. “Touch the Night” is the highlight of the whole album. There, Young breaks out the electric guitars for some awesomely wimpy heavy metal. That idea to bring out a children's chorus gives it an extra texture ... it's definitely better than those horrible keyboard sounds he used for some of these other tracks! Other parts consist of a crunchy string section, which also works well. I can tell Young was using some of his creative juices for that one, and they worked well. Unfortunately, that one's followed-up with the worst song from the album, “Touch the Night,” which sounds like Young turned on the radio to hear a Michael Jackson song once and did a half-assed interpretation of it right after. The groove gets monotonous, and there's no energy in it. “I Got a Problem” probably has the best drum loop on the whole disc. It's a towering sound, and it's rather ear-catching. Although, that four-note riff that's constantly repeating gets terribly on my nerves. “Drifter,” the album closer, probably has the album's best synth-groove (which is average, on most standards). What I like best about that song, however, is not the groove. It's that guitar solo toward the end! There's also a keyboard solo, but its brassy sound is a bit ear-piercing. I had some good words to say about Landing on Water, but I have a sneaking suspicion that 98 percent of the people who listen to it will hate it. Neil Young's fans will hate it for sounding too '80s mainstream. '80s mainstream fans will hate it for sounding too amateurish. Other music fans wouldn't have any interest in hearing it. I'm not touting Landing on Water as a lost masterpiece ... or even as a recommendable album. I liked certain parts of it, but this album as a whole is so weak that I can already tell I'm probably never going to listen to it again. The only people who should consider hearing this album are the chronically curious. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Life (1987)Album Score: 10Here's another album that Neil Young fans seem to have avoided like the plague, but I don't think it's so bad! It was his final record for Geffen, which he had constantly been fighting with. But this was the end of that, and Life seems to show he was ready to start returning to the critical success that he once enjoyed all those years ago. ...But the critics still hate this album. He's still stuck in those terrible '80s, and there are STADIUM DRUMS and KEYBOARDS on this album! Oh, for shame! But I don't really mind stadium drums and keyboards. They're just fine if they're done well. Young has reunited with Crazy Horse for this release (the first time he had done so since they recorded that novelty-rock album Re-ac-tor), and they did their '80s pop homework. These stadium songs sound good. This is a far cry from those weirdo arrangements he came up with in Landing in Water. And Young spent some time to come up with a few catchy melodies. ... Hey this album is pretty good! Why do people dislike it, again? The album opens so well that I was beginning to suspect that Life was some sort of lost masterpiece. The first three songs are amazingly good A-level compositions; I love hearing those immensely! But then I listened to the rest of the album, and that shattered my dreams. Alas, Life is an average album, after all! So, let's talk about these first three songs! “Mideast Vacation” opens the festivities. It is a keyboard-led song that's very well-polished and features a strange array of sound effects ... you hear rubbery synthesizers, gun shot sounds, airplane noises, etc. Young tried similar things in a few of these '80s albums, notably in Re-ac-tor and Landing in Water. But for once, he actually did them just right. The song sounds great! Furthermore, that melody is an utterly captivating one. “Long Walk Home” isn't very '80s sounding at all apart from those synthesizers heard briefly during a bridge. It's is a ballad sort of like Young used to do ... he plays a melancholy piano, and a harmonica occasionally blares away. I do like the melody he sings—especially that chorus. “Around the World” is Young's best attempt at trying to emulate Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA sound. It's very loud, there's a prominent stadium drum beat and keyboards well integrated in the background. There's a sudden shift to a synth-pop section, which is actually a little better than the stadium part. The flow between these sections is surprisingly well-done. Young's vocal melody is rather banal, but it's delivered rather well. Naturally, there were some vocal enhancements to keep his voice sounding passable for such a song! It's surprisingly likable! Things start to go downhill once “Inca Queen” pops up. It would have been a perfectly nice four minute song, but they keep it going, on life support, through eight minutes. The instrumentation has an elevator music effect. I was willing to have let that slide, but that sterile mood just got too annoying at the end. The melody is pretty captivating, but it loses its power and I grow very bored with it. It's not the worst song ever invented, but it sure could have used some serious pruning! “Too Lonely” is another attempt at a banal rocker except it's not nearly as creative as “Around the World” was. Interestingly, that song obviously rips off the riff of The Rolling Stones' “Satisfaction,” which he had also ripped off when he wrote “Mr. Soul” when he was in Buffalo Springfield. Mick Jagger says “Stop it, man!” There's also a mention of “big lips” in those lyrics. Dude! “Prisoners of Rock N Roll” is Neil Young's excuse for his album-making behavior in the '80s. He bluntly states that he was purposefully making uncharacteristic albums because the record company kept trying to control him! So the rumors were right, after all! It has a fine melody, albeit it's also banal. In this case, that was probably done on purpose! At least there's a wicked-cool, wired-up guitar solo in that one! The last half of the album was going just fine until “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks” popped up. That's a terrible attempt at creating a Bon-Jovi-style power ballad, and it fell flat on its face. That's a terrible genre to begin with, and Young's dabbling in the genre is just awful. I was nice to his '80s stuff, but that took the cake. The melody is stupid, and those very loud MTV drums just made matters worse. There's not even anything funny or sarcastic about the lyrics... Why did he record this? Luckily, the album ends on a much better note. “We Never Danced” is another very '80s sounding ballad, but at least the melody is good, and the arrangements were on acid. It's not a perfect composition, but I enjoyed it at least. I can understand why Young's fans have shied away from this album... After all, he tries to emulate a '80s pop star through much of this! But if you don't mind the '80s in general, and if you enjoyed a lot of Young's previous works, it might be well worth your effort to take a look at Life. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
This Note's For You (1988)Album Score: 9Neil Young might have quit the Geffen label, but that doesn't mean he knew when to quit! This Note's For You marked yet another instance of Young extreme genre leaps. This time he found himself in the territory of '80s cheese-blues. That's right. We have the ultra-polished, swinging rhythm sections, the blaring horn sections and about zero-percent originality. Yucky! But let's be fair. While this album isn't particularly good, it's not particularly bad, either. At least the instrumentation sounds good, which is what keeps it a fair distance away from so many similar albums of the era. Well, my job reviewing this album is easy, because most of you already knows what this album sounds like without hearing it! Other than switching to a new label, it's not even an important one for Neil Young since it's pretty clear that he's just treading water ... again. There are a few candidates for “best song” in this album, but I went along with “Sunny Inside” partly because it's one of the few tracks here that couldn't be described as '80s cheese-blues. Rather, that's a cheesy '80s version of '60s sunshine pop! It's nothing too special, but at least Young forced himself to gravitate away from those predictable chord progressions. Although the back-up band pretty much plays the same sort of thing in that track as the others, so you might not even notice that he switched genres! Very, very sneaky... Funnily, the only other song on the album that isn't blues turns out to be a total piece of garbage. “Twilight” seems to be an attempt at trying on Dire Straits' atmospheric cosmic-rock underpants... except instead of Mark Knopfer's light-fingered twinkles, we get these clumsy clomps. It's pretty obvious the band didn't plan anything before going to the studio with it... The track is long, boring, long and boring ... and even the atmosphere is non-developed, which might have helped matters. Come to think of it, I didn't even care for Dire Strait's atmospheric stuff, so what was Neil Young thinking? The title track is a fun song even though it's a little too short. The lyrics seem to be a message to his new label that he doesn't want to be forced into doing things. I guess they complied, which could explain why Young would soon begin to start seriously writing his sort of music. I also enjoy the generic blues-rocker “Hey Hey” a little more than usual because it has an especially enjoyable horn section, the rhythm section swings as mightily as it ever has, and he brings in a few awesome, wobbly electric guitar licks here and there! The album opener “Ten Men Workin'” is an OK for an opener --- it's upbeat and it also has a swing to it. Though that particular one has a disadvantage, because any listener hearing this album for the first time is bound to be disturbed at that first instance when they hear Neil Young doing this sort of music. So, I gave it a B-. Maybe it would have been a B in the middle of the album? Well, that's not a big deal anyway. The closing song, “One Thing,” is a massive, massive bore, though. It's six minutes long and not interesting for even one second. Although that seems like small potatoes compared to the eighth track, “Can't Believe Your Lyin',” which is about as interesting as Bill Clinton giving a speech not about sex. And it's semi-embarrassing hearing Young trying to do slow jazz like he was some sort of female sex siren. To say the least, that's slightly disturbing since he was already getting pretty old and wrinkly. While this album has some merits and is not as bad as it could have been, there's really no reason for anyone to hear it. This didn't inspire any of his disgruntled ex-fans to return to him nor did he attract a new audience. About all this album is good for is existing. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Freedom (1989)Album Score: 11It was 1989, the year of the fake-comeback for old rock stars who had career slumps in the '80s, but Neil's comeback might have been a real one. After nearly a decade of flagrant genre-hopping and intentionally cutting albums that didn't sell, Freedom marks a much-heralded return to form. He went back to composing anthems, introspective ballads and feedback-heavy numbers. And practically overnight, he regained his critical acclaim and mass popularity. It was as though Neil Young had just gotten out of his coma, or something. But most people who listened to it, his '80s career wasn't that bad. It was vastly unpredictable, sure, and Young seemed out-of-his-element through most of it. Perhaps there's a little bit of me that misses the insane diversity I was subject to ... but the other part of me is thrilled that I'm listening to Neil Young back to his old self again. Young apparently wanted to make sure that everyone knew that he was back considering Freedom is a very calculated remake of Rust Never Sleeps. It had been his last album to have made an impact in the public conscious, so releasing this gives almost a symbolic “I am back now!” message. The most uncanny similarity between this album and Rust Never Sleeps is both albums open with an acoustic anthem and end with an electrified version of the same song. Naturally, Freedom doesn't even come close to matching Rust Never Sleeps, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. But considering how unbearably awesome that album was, it doesn't come to any surprise that Freedom makes an excellent listen as well. Let's take a closer look at the songs... “Rockin' in the Free World” is the already mentioned bookending anthem. I like the song's melody, most of all, and Young delivers a confident vocal performance. A lot of people like to call the electric version of it a very early example of grunge. I would have said that about the electric version of “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black),” maybe, but “Rockin'” sounds a lot more like hair metal! Anyway, “Rockin' in the Free World” might have been completely calculated, but they remain an enjoyable and high-class pair of songs. “Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero)” is only the album's second song, and he's already starting to do these rambly nine-minute epics. Though that song is actually very fun to sit through. I like hearing that trotting drum rhythm, and Young comes up with more than his fair share of hooks to keep me entertained. So, despite the odds, that song gets a hearty thumbs-up. Excellent as those were, “Don't Cry” is the highlight of the whole album. It's a sort of power-ballad that features a guitar so deep and distorted that you can almost not hear it. This guitar is another point people make when comparing this to grunge music, and they could have a point. But all I'm hearing is a really bizarre guitar solo. Other than that, the song is very conventional. But that guitar teams up with the melody and its confident, straightforward rhythm to turn the experience into something thunderous and completely awesome. Cool! I do really like Young's hard-rock cover version of “On Broadway.” It's something you wouldn't expect him to do, and I think he pulled it off pretty well. It starts out bouncy and confident, but by the end he's brought back that severely dark guitar and his vocals get madder. It's a very cool rendition! Things get boring in the middle of the album, though. The acoustic duet with Linda Ronstadt in “Hangin' on a Limb” isn't particularly interesting, melodically, and it makes me sleepy. Even worse is “Wrecking Ball,” which is all that plus it has a really, really generic melody that sounds like it was lifted from a toneless adult contemporary ballad. “Eldorado” has its ups and downs... I like the chorus and the verses just fine, but it goes on for too long. And that introduction sequence is really awful. “Someday” has a similar really-awful intro sequence that undermines the otherwise enjoyable track. I want to make it clear that I am glad that Neil Young finally got around to a return-to-form. He's actually concentrating on writing his sort of music, and that's what he's best at. I don't think as much of Freedom as a lot of people do. It's only a weakened carbon copy of Rust Never Sleeps, but I'll gladly listen to a billion of those. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
Ragged Glory (1990)Album Score: 11Around the early '90s, it seemed an awful lot of artists were excited about the new CD format and thought they had to release albums with enough material to fill up all that extra space they had. After hearing Ragged Glory, I have to wonder if Neil Young was guilty of doing that, too. There are only 10 tracks in this album, and most of them are very good! ... But about three or four of them just seem to keep going. To fill up the time, Neil Young does nothing to change the hook, chord progressions or texture ... he just gives us an extended version of one of his wonky solos on an extremely distorted guitar. Of course, he's talented enough to keep it interesting most of the time, but other times I just want him to shut the hell up and get on with the next song. I realize how anti-Young I'm being ...Well, I guess I was never a rabid fan of his to begin with... Excuse me if I don't worship every single one of his wonks. You could say this album is a little more effective as background music than for intense listening. But even as I was listening to it casually, a lot of it just seemed like it went well past its expiration date. “Over and Over,” for example, is just a single groove that's *ahem* being repeated over and over. It's a neat groove, and his ultra-distorted guitar is cool, but why is it so much to ask that he changes the textures and melodies around a little bit? ... Why are we forced to endure the same repeated ideas for eight minutes?? It's not hypnotizing or anything. “Love to Burn” is 10-minutes long, but at least it has a more workable hook, and some more impressive guitar noodling. I only get tired of that song after, er, six minutes! It manages to generate enough momentum to keep it fun. So, I'm only complaining about it a little bit. “Love and Only Love” is also a 10-minute song... and it's pretty indistinguishable from “Love to Burn.” I have the exact same comments and the exact same complaints. That brings me to my next point. All of these songs sound the same! “The Days That Used to Be” is really well-written, but that's because it's ripped-off from Bob Dylan's “My Back Pages.” I do like the way he worked in that crunchy guitar riff in there. “F*!#in' Up” might not be quite as engagingly melodic, but it has the meanest guitar riff of the whole album, so therefore it is my favorite track. That's just a really cool song to hear. Of course the guitar is incredibly distorted there, and really does sound like he was trying to show those young grunge boys a thing or two about awesome ugliness... and succeeding to a considerable degree. “Mansion on a Hill” is about the only song here with pop-appeal (if you want to call it that). The guitar riff is catchy, and I guess it doesn't sound that distorted. The vocal melody is pretty good, and it's accented by these haunting “ooooo” noises that have a tendency to stick in my mind. Nice one! I had a lot of negative things to say about this album, but that's not my fault. There were a lot of negative things to be said!! However, truth be told, I liked this album, and all of the songs I talked about thus far in the review have overall been good ones. The only terrible song on the album is the closing number called “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem).” It just consists of Neil Young and his back-up band singing alone with an incredibly distorted electric guitar. I mean, these lyrics were pompous already without such treatment! The only way you're going to fall hopelessly in love with Ragged Glory is if you love the electric guitar, and you want to listen to Neil Young play with it for 70 minutes straight. There is next-to-no musical diversity in here... the melodies are usually fine, but most of them consist of one hook that's repeated forever. I do like listening to electric guitar solos very much, but in order to appreciate this album you have to reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally appreciate the electric guitar. And I mean reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally. Read the track reviews and reader comments:
|
All reviews are written by Michael Lawrence.
