31st August - Neil Young's After the Gold Rush

Artist - Album: Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
Released: 31st August 1971
Sounds like: A comforting arm around your shoulder

One of the albums that I loved most when I was a wee bairn was a mixtape made by my Auntie for my Mum. We only ever listened to it on long journeys, so it invariably meant holidays and beaches and fun. It also meant awesome songs, but the fact that it was on a cassette (ask your parents, kids!) meant that it was soon forgotten about and lost, and I have little idea of how to track down the songs that were on it. Most are now lost to the ether, but there's a few that I've stumbled upon now that I'm older: there's Johnny Cash's cover of 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right', and the splendidly obscure folk-samba of 'Trade Winds' by Mark-Almond (not the Soft Cell lead singer). There was also a couple from classic albums in the form of David Bowie's 'Kooks' and, my then absolute favourite, 'Til the Morning Comes' from this album.

Neil Young has an unparalleled ability to write music that is both sweet and naive, and yet interesting and beguiling.  After the Gold Rush is my favourite of his and its full of such songs. Some, such as 'Tell Me Why' and 'I Believe in You', are adorned with gorgeous harmonies; some rock out, like 'Southern Man' and 'When You Dance I Can Really Love'; and others, for example 'Oh Lonesome Me' and 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart', are deliciously resigned. All are brilliant.

Incidentally, this is also the album that I turned to during a bad break up a few years ago - the rocking 'Southern Man' aside, this is an album obsessed with love and heartache. It's not particularly objective of me to be reviewing an album which I have such personal affection for, but, in this case, I'm not sure it makes a difference: I love the album because of what it did for me, but I'm certain that I'd love it anyway. It's a corker.

Albumaday... rating: 10/10

1. Tell Me Why – 2:54
2. After the Gold Rush – 3:45
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart – 3:05
4. Southern Man – 5:31
5. Till the Morning Comes – 1:17
6. Oh Lonesome Me – 3:47
7. Don't Let It Bring You Down – 2:56
8. Birds – 2:34
9. When You Dance I Can Really Love – 4:05
10. I Believe in You – 3:24
11. Cripple Creek Ferry – 1:34

Listen to 'Don't Let It Bring You Down': www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBG4vxi9mtk

Also released on 31^st August:

1970: The Beach Boys – Sunflower

Also released on 31^st August:

1987: Michael Jackson – Bad

Also released on 31^st August:

2004: Jill Scott – Beautifully Human

20th June - Neil Young's Tonight's the Night

Artist – Album: Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night

Released:  20^th June 1975

Sounds Like:  The bleeding heart show

I’ve got something that’s been troubling me, dear readers, and its high time I got it off my chest. You see, yesterday I was told that my dear friend Rufus doesn’t have long left to live. Heartbreaking. It was hardly unexpected – he’s very old and, in truth, he’s been hanging on for a while now. But, you know, we’ve been on some real journeys together and I’m not ashamed to say he’s carried me in times of need. Yep, yesterday was a sad day indeed: Rufus, my fourteen year old Nissan Micra, needs a new exhaust, back box, and pretty much everything, and it’d be cheaper for me to just get a new car. In the next few months I’m going to have to sell him to webuyanycar.com... I took the decision to fill you in with that difficult news there to illustrate that, yes, I’ve known some bloody hard times in my twenty-five years on this earth. Not even these experiences though could equip me for the harrowing ordeal that comes with Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night.

Young went through a couple of (arguably) even more upsetting experiences than losing his car in the build up to recording this album: fellow Crazy Horse Danny Whitten died just under a year before recording took place, whilst roadie pal Bruce Berry succumbed to a drug overdose just a few months later. Additionally, the success he’d amassed after his work with Crosby, Stills & Nash, and his solo albums After the Goldrush and Harvest, left him disillusioned and disenchanted, and he was desperate to move away from the commercial side of things. Throw in his morbid obsession with drug addiction (driven by the fatalities of his friends) and you have something of a perfect storm of unflinching despair.

That being said, the weariness and turmoil of the albums themes do not make this the unlistenable record of other similar efforts. True, the playing is sloppy and loose, and Young’s voice cracks and strains more than once, but the man is second to none in turning out beautiful country rock melodies. That talent is as much on show here as on his other, happier attempts and the consistency of the record makes it truly special. Outstanding.

Albumaday... rating:  9/10

1.       Tonight’s the Night – 4:39

2.       Speakin’ Out – 4:56

3.       World on a String – 2:27

4.       Borrowed Tune – 3:26

5.       Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown – 3:35

6.       Mellow My Mind – 3:07

7.       Roll Another Number (for the Road) – 3:02

8.       Albuquerque – 4:02

9.       New Mama – 2:11

10.   Lookout Joe – 3:57

11.   Tired Eyes – 4:38

12.   Tonight’s the Night – Part II – 4:52

Listen to ‘Albuquerque’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppkrb0VhN9A

Also released on the 20^th June:

2000: The White Stripes – De Stijl

14th May - Neil Young with Crazy Horse's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Artist – Album: Neil Young with Crazy Horse- Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Released:  14^th May 1969             

Sounds Like: Young Neil rocks

The best of Neil Young’s music falls under two distinct categories – those with his backing band Crazy Horse and those without. Sans the zany stallions, his sound is countrified folk rock, all falsetto vocals, dreamy lyrics and beautiful orchestration or plucked acoustic guitar. In the company of the wacky steeds though, they turn it up a little bit. The guy rocks out, amid electric guitar solos, thudding bass and hard drums, and the noise they made became something of a precursor to the alternative rock and grunge genres.

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere is Neil Young’s second album but his first with the eccentric mares, and that loose, guitar-heavy rock sound is in full effect. Admittedly, in comparison to some of their heavier stuff on later albums such as Rust Never Sleeps and Weld, it’s reined in (hehe, a pun) somewhat, but ‘Cinnamon Girl’, for example, stands as one of the greatest rockers in Young’s lengthy and impressive career. ‘Down by the River’ and ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ are stretched, sustained jams, full of distorted guitar solos and suggestive lyrics. All three were written whilst he was bedridden in Topanga Canyon with a 103 °F (39 °C) fever, and yet each has been hailed as his finest composition at various junctures.  Elsewhere, ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and ‘Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long)’ retain the amplified approach but have elements of his alter ego, that harmonious country star, to them.

Few artists have possessed the sense of individuality and identity that Young conveys, and there’s elements that you just wouldn’t think would work – he has the awkward, lanky demeanour that ill-suits a frontman; his high pitched, wavering voice; and the thirty-seven studio albums he has had released since 1968 should surely affect the quality of his output. But, invariably, he overcomes these obstacles to create some of the best music rock history has ever heard, with a brilliant emphasis on feeling and groove. And of those thirty-seven fantastic albums, this may well make the top three.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Cinnamon Girl – 2:58

2.       Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – 2:26

3.       Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long) – 5:49

4.       Down by the River – 9:13

5.       The Losing End (When You’re On) – 4:03

6.       Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets) – 5:30

7.       Cowgirl in the Sand – 10:06

Listen to ‘Cinnamon Girl’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAdtUDaBfRA

Also released on the 14^th May:

2002: The Black Keys – The Big Come Up

Also released on the 14^th May:

2007: Battles – Atlas

Also released on the 14^th May:

2007: The 1990’s - Cookies

14th Feb - Neil Young's Harvest

Artist – Album: Neil Young - Harvest

Released:  14^th February 1972    

Sounds Like: Will you be my Valentine?

Over the years I have developed a healthy cynicism over today, February 14^th, Valentine’s day. If you’re in a relationship it puts unnecessary pressure on to make some big romantic gesture and, with everybody else also celebrating on the very same day (well organised cupid), you get drawn into one-upmanship with other couple friends or failing to find a restaurant that isn’t already fully booked. And God help you if you’re not in a relationship. Being in public places you feel oddly conspicuous, like the world and his wife has, well, a wife. You might go down the ignorance route, drawing the curtains, banging on a couple of DVDs and shutting yourself off from the world. Or you might succumb to the schmaltzy Hallmark romanticism and perform some ill-fated act of ridiculousness, like craft for your ex a homemade Valentines card out of Kit Kat wrappers (which I was guilty of this time round). It ain’t good.

I don’t think Neil Young circa Harvest shared this cynicism. Sure, there is the confusing and symphonic ‘A Man Needs a Maid’, a song that’s not as sexist as it sounds but isn’t exactly lovelorn either. But elsewhere (think ‘Out on the Weekend’, ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Old Man’) Young sounds like a man on the lookout for Miss Right, charmed by the idea of a new relationship. He does dabble in other themes too, note the tragic ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’, but the overall mood is one of longing for a new romance.

All this is ensconced in melodic loveliness. Whether taking a country approach as in ‘Heart of Gold’ or the more garage rock sound of ‘Alabama’, Young possesses an invaluable ability to keep songs both simple and interesting, and they provide the perfect blanket to swathe his tender, doe eyed lyrics. Within a couple more years though, Young turned out to be a much greater cynic than I'll ever be.

Albumaday... rating: 9/10

1.       Out on the Weekend – 4:34

2.       Harvest – 3:11

3.       A Man Needs a Maid – 4:05

4.       Heart of Gold – 3:07

5.       Are You Ready for the Country – 3:23

6.       Old Man – 3:24

7.       There’s a World – 2:59

8.       Alabama – 4:02

9.       The Needle and the Damage Done – 2:03

10.   Words (Between the Lines of Age) – 6:40

Listen to ‘A Man Needs a Maid’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bORW_YEmHwY