Review for www.nomoreworkhorse.com
Showing posts with label Crazy Horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crazy Horse. Show all posts
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Monday, November 21, 2022
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Friday, December 10, 2021
Friday, October 25, 2019
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Album Review: Neil Young - American Stars 'n' Bars
Neil Young's 1977 album followed a very productive streak which produced the peerless On The Beach and Zuma. It's a bit of a mish-mash of styles, opening up with The Old Country Waltz, which is just that, a relatively hokey, countrified waltz featuring backing vocals from Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson. Dodgy songs abound, particularly the country-rock pairing of Saddle Up The Palomino and Bite The Bullet, and the slow country of Hold Back The Tears is not much better.
So why bother with this album? There are 4 very fine tracks on it. The country strum of Hey Babe strides along very nicely, and the acoustic ballad Star of Bethlehem is equally fine. But the latter half of the album is dominated by two tracks which taken together last 15 minutes. The spooky acoustic ballad Will To Love is the first of these. The song features a vibraphone along with the sound of campfire crackling in the background, lending it an eerie atmosphere. Oblique lyrics about "an ocean fish who swam upstream" simply add to this.
The next track blows all the cobwebs away. Like A Hurricane was recorded with Crazy Horse, and it shows. The song is an epic guitar tour de force, a straightforward descending melody provides the background for Neil Young's blistering guitar solos. The final track, country-stomp Homegrown is something of a let down but this album is worth seeking out for the previous two tracks alone.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Friday, November 9, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Album Review: Neil Young - Americana
Monday, August 1, 2011
Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale
After the lacklustre Are You Passionate, Neil Young regrouped with Crazy Horse for 2003’s Greendale, an album, DVD and book(!). This was billed as a ‘rock opera’. Good grief.
As it turns out there’s not a whole lot wrong with this album in theory. The guitar sound is as dirty as any Neil Young fan would desire. No, the problem is the cringey lyrics about Grandpa etc are accompanied by not particularly strong melodies, most of which go on FAR too long. There’s very little about opener Falling From Above’s growling riffs that couldn’t have been done in less than seven and a half minutes.
Leave The Driving is a more muted, midtempo, melancholic brand of Neil Young, again stretched to more than seven minutes. Carmichael has a nice growling riff though it is also too long (10 minutes!). The one acoustic track here, Bandit cleverly incorporates a buzzing string into the song with a very hushed vocal. It sounds very refreshing coming midway through this album, but unfortunately the album returns to the lengthy, characterless songs of before.
Special mention to Grandpa’s Interview for stretching a riff to almost 13 minutes. The pump-organ of Bringin’ Down Dinner isn’t bad either. However it’s an album that demands a lot of patience, even for the committed Neil Young fan.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Broken Arrow
The good thing about Neil Young albums is that if you don’t like one, you might like the next one. They tend to vary a fair bit stylistically. However in 1996, his album with Crazy Horse was the latest in a long line of rock albums, stretching back to 1989’s Freedom, and broken only by 1992’s Harvest Moon.
Ok that’s enough of the back story. One noticeable thing about this album is that there are only 8 songs on it, and the first 3 songs are all more than seven minutes long. Big Time is classic sounding Crazy Horse territory with that unique guitar sound, though it and many of the other tracks here are overlong. Case in point is Loose Change, which has a very pleasing, if ridiculously repetitive guitar-laden midsection but does it really need to be nearly 10 minutes long?
The loping strut of Slip Away is the closest in feel to his classic 70s Crazy Horse material, with ghostly vocals harking back to the more recent Change Your Mind. After 3 tracks over 25 minutes you either buy into this or you don’t. Changing Highways is sloppy country-rock, like a weaker version of Looking for a Love (off Zuma), and Scattered again evokes the 70s (Albuquerque off Tonight’s the Night).
Lovers of acoustic Neil are also catered for here with the mellow strum of Music Arcade, but final track Baby What You Want Me To Do, a Jimmy Reed cover, is a messy (in a bad way) blues strum recorded live, complete crowd noises and dragged out over 8 minutes!
Definitely not an album for lovers of short, succinct songs, mainly one for fans of the jamming Crazy Horse variety.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels
I’m smitten. Object of my desire? 14 minutes of Change Your Mind. But more of that later.
This album came out in 1994 in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death, and many people felt the title referred to this. It represented a total change of tack from Harvest Moon, with the return of Crazy Horse as the band and David Briggs in the producer’s chair.
This album came out in 1994 in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain’s death, and many people felt the title referred to this. It represented a total change of tack from Harvest Moon, with the return of Crazy Horse as the band and David Briggs in the producer’s chair.
The album opens with the totally unrepresentative My Heart, a piece on piano and marimba, with a slight feel of Will to Love (off American Stars n Bars) about it. From here the album becomes a lot more brooding. Prime of Life is faster, with flute and gorgeous harmonies, while guitars growl menacingly in the background. Driveby takes a deliberate guitar pattern and underlays with more guitar growls.
The guitar work is quite superb on this album, the title track being particularly raucous. But Crazy Horse have also proved they can do quiet over the years, and they do so again on this album with the countrified folk of Western Hero (reprised later on the album as Train of Love) which could fit in well on Harvest Moon etc minus the distorted guitar in the middle.
So to the centrepiece, Change Your Mind. It’s another in a long line of long, plodding guitar work outs in Neil Young’s back catalogue. This one is even longer than usual at fourteen and a half minutes and seldom deviates from a two chord formula. But what a stellar pair of chords. Your opinion on this will depend on your opinion of Down by the River, Cowgirl In The Sand, Cortez the Killer etc. I find it amazing that a piece of music like this can run for so long with minimal variation and remain compelling. This one certainly does, brooding like a bad thing throughout.
The album continues with slow noisy blues (Blue Eden), the spooky Safeway Cart with quasi –religious saviour references, and the haunting Trans Am. Piece of Crap is a rockier animal but it’s hard to take seriously with the band roaring “piece of crap!” and A Dream That Can Last brings the whole thing full circle, achoing the melody and feel of the opener.
This is a fairly essential nineties Neil Young album, hanging like the grim reaper in the corner of 1994.
This is a fairly essential nineties Neil Young album, hanging like the grim reaper in the corner of 1994.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Ragged Glory
In 1990 Neil Young had not worked with Crazy Horse for quite a while, and reunited they produced a long, loose, sloppy set of jams. Many of the songs are quite long, 7-10 minutes in duration, showcasing long, distorted guitar solos.
Isolating individual tracks is difficult, as it’s more about the riffs, of which there are plenty. Tracks like Country Home, Over and Over and Love To Burn have raw, dirty guitar riffage going through them, while the vocals are ropey as hell – no autotune here!
They make time for a little throwaway with the hokey Farmer John, while later Days That Used To Be takes the melody and subject matter of Bob Dylan’s My Back Page and runs it through the Horse filter, with very pleasing results. Less successful is Mother Earth, an “all join hands” style ballad which is a little tedious.
This is defiantly not a songwriter’s album. It’s about the feel and the guitar sound. Though it has one monumental song on it in the shape of F*!#in' Up which has a pounding beat and a dirty guitar sound. It’s as grunge as it gets, like most of the album, making it fit perfectly with the start of the nineties.
Isolating individual tracks is difficult, as it’s more about the riffs, of which there are plenty. Tracks like Country Home, Over and Over and Love To Burn have raw, dirty guitar riffage going through them, while the vocals are ropey as hell – no autotune here!
They make time for a little throwaway with the hokey Farmer John, while later Days That Used To Be takes the melody and subject matter of Bob Dylan’s My Back Page and runs it through the Horse filter, with very pleasing results. Less successful is Mother Earth, an “all join hands” style ballad which is a little tedious.
This is defiantly not a songwriter’s album. It’s about the feel and the guitar sound. Though it has one monumental song on it in the shape of F*!#in' Up which has a pounding beat and a dirty guitar sound. It’s as grunge as it gets, like most of the album, making it fit perfectly with the start of the nineties.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Album Review: Neil Young – Comes A Time
At this point in the mid to late seventies Neil Young was on fire creatively, releasing a string of excellent albums (not to mention the bootlegs). However, most of these were relatively uncommercial, and ‘rockier’ than albums like After the Gold Rush and Harvest. I went through a phase of dismissing these more accessible albums, thinking ‘rockier’ = better. This was short-sighted of me. Neil Young can groove mightily with Crazy Horse alright, but he can also write straightforward yet deeply affecting heartfelt songs. His best albums are probably the ones where he mixes the two styles.
He returned to the countrified, acoustic sound used on Harvest for this 1978 album, and from the opening bars of the aptly titled Goin’ Back, it fits him like a glove. The moment you hear the plaintively strummed guitars it feels comfortable, like an old sweater, enhanced by the beautiful string section. We’re definitely in country territory here, almost too much so as the fiddle on the title track is a little ‘hokey’. Behind the fiddle is another excellent melody.
Look Out for My Love and Lotta Love were done with Crazy Horse, so don’t share the warm, fuzzy feeling of the opening 2 tracks. Yet these tracks have their own charm, in a slightly less polished sort of way. The presence of electric guitar on the former is quite welcome, and the almost clumsy piano and harmony on Lotta Love work well.
Peace of Mind sees the return of the strings, like the sound of sunset in August. Like the rest of the album it’s a very relaxed song, all steel guitars and harmonies. Human Highway picks the pace up a little, adding banjo, and Already One is a nice, sentimental song without being mushy.
The final 3 tracks are not quite as strong as the opening 7. Field of Opportunity comes riding in on a tractor with a piece of hay in its mouth, Motorcycle Mama doesn’t quite work, despite the prominent vocals of Nicolette Larsson, while Four Strong Winds is just a little dull. This album doesn’t get the plaudits of Harvest, perhaps because it’s lacking a true standout track in the vein of Old Man or Needle and the Damage Done. Nevertheless it’s essential for fans of Neil Young’s work.
He returned to the countrified, acoustic sound used on Harvest for this 1978 album, and from the opening bars of the aptly titled Goin’ Back, it fits him like a glove. The moment you hear the plaintively strummed guitars it feels comfortable, like an old sweater, enhanced by the beautiful string section. We’re definitely in country territory here, almost too much so as the fiddle on the title track is a little ‘hokey’. Behind the fiddle is another excellent melody.
Look Out for My Love and Lotta Love were done with Crazy Horse, so don’t share the warm, fuzzy feeling of the opening 2 tracks. Yet these tracks have their own charm, in a slightly less polished sort of way. The presence of electric guitar on the former is quite welcome, and the almost clumsy piano and harmony on Lotta Love work well.
Peace of Mind sees the return of the strings, like the sound of sunset in August. Like the rest of the album it’s a very relaxed song, all steel guitars and harmonies. Human Highway picks the pace up a little, adding banjo, and Already One is a nice, sentimental song without being mushy.
The final 3 tracks are not quite as strong as the opening 7. Field of Opportunity comes riding in on a tractor with a piece of hay in its mouth, Motorcycle Mama doesn’t quite work, despite the prominent vocals of Nicolette Larsson, while Four Strong Winds is just a little dull. This album doesn’t get the plaudits of Harvest, perhaps because it’s lacking a true standout track in the vein of Old Man or Needle and the Damage Done. Nevertheless it’s essential for fans of Neil Young’s work.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Album Review: Neil Young – On the Beach
Amazingly this Neil Young album, originally released in 1974 was not released on CD until 2003! It’s a more sombre album than his other early 70s albums. As the natural follow-up to best-selling Harvest, it must have been confusing for fans weaned on those pretty country-style songs which made up the majority of that album, as this gloriously bleak album sees a man who is jaundiced, sick of the rock star culture of the 70s and the acclaim that goes with it. And yet, it’s not a bore to listen to as Neil Young made an album which has definitely stood the test of time.
For this album he assembled a motley crew of musicians, with the likes of David Crosby, Graham Nash (of CSN and sometimes Y fame), along with Ralph Molina (Crazy Horse), Rusty Kershaw, Ben Keith etc.
Walk On is a somewhat unremarkable opener, a standard issue Neil Young lope-along track, but second track See the Sky About to Rain is a wholly different kettle of fish. Notable for the heavy use of keyboards in it, it’s a slow-burner of a song, with Young singing “played a silver fiddle, played it loud and then the man broke it down the middle. See the sky about to rain.” It’s kind of foreboding, but nothing like us foreboding as Revolution Blues. This song reportedly freaked out Crosby, Stills and Nash, with its insistent guitar pattern and ‘call-to-arms’ style lyrics, lacerating the big stars of the period (“I see bloody fountains, And ten million dune buggies comin' down the mountains. Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars, But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars”).
After this, the rootsier For the Turnstiles comes across as a relief, though again it’s an uneasy listen, with Young’s high-pitched, almost cracking vocals over banjo and dobro.
We settle into the second half of the album with Vampire Blues, another ‘lop-along’ like Walk On, with a basic blues progression, and a sparse, one note guitar passage in the middle section. Young sings about how “good times are coming, but they sure are coming slow.” The title track follows which is a much bleaker piece, featuring slow hand drums from Ben Keith, and great hesitant guitar from Young himself. He sounds totally bereft on this track, singing “though my problems are meaningless, that don’t make them go away.” The playing on this track is wonderful, it’s perfectly paced with a wonderful sparse guitar solo in the middle.
Motion Pictures features Neil Young singing in a much lower register than usual, and it suits him quite well, over a simple descending guitar riff, accompanied by some nice harmonica. He carries this singing style through to the last track, the nearly 9 minute Ambulance Blues, which is a kind of low key epic, featuring a simple folky guitar part , joined by harmonica and Rusty Kershaw’s rusty fiddle (don’t know if it actually was, but I imagine it to be). There are some lovely touches here, like when the lyrics wonderfully reflect the music. He sings “burn-outs stub their toes on garbage pails” as he deliberately plays a deep note loudly on guitar that could be a bum note, except that it’s in tune.
It’s criminal that these songs are not better known, or indeed this album, as it’s one of Neil Young’s finest.
For this album he assembled a motley crew of musicians, with the likes of David Crosby, Graham Nash (of CSN and sometimes Y fame), along with Ralph Molina (Crazy Horse), Rusty Kershaw, Ben Keith etc.
Walk On is a somewhat unremarkable opener, a standard issue Neil Young lope-along track, but second track See the Sky About to Rain is a wholly different kettle of fish. Notable for the heavy use of keyboards in it, it’s a slow-burner of a song, with Young singing “played a silver fiddle, played it loud and then the man broke it down the middle. See the sky about to rain.” It’s kind of foreboding, but nothing like us foreboding as Revolution Blues. This song reportedly freaked out Crosby, Stills and Nash, with its insistent guitar pattern and ‘call-to-arms’ style lyrics, lacerating the big stars of the period (“I see bloody fountains, And ten million dune buggies comin' down the mountains. Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars, But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars”).
After this, the rootsier For the Turnstiles comes across as a relief, though again it’s an uneasy listen, with Young’s high-pitched, almost cracking vocals over banjo and dobro.
We settle into the second half of the album with Vampire Blues, another ‘lop-along’ like Walk On, with a basic blues progression, and a sparse, one note guitar passage in the middle section. Young sings about how “good times are coming, but they sure are coming slow.” The title track follows which is a much bleaker piece, featuring slow hand drums from Ben Keith, and great hesitant guitar from Young himself. He sounds totally bereft on this track, singing “though my problems are meaningless, that don’t make them go away.” The playing on this track is wonderful, it’s perfectly paced with a wonderful sparse guitar solo in the middle.
Motion Pictures features Neil Young singing in a much lower register than usual, and it suits him quite well, over a simple descending guitar riff, accompanied by some nice harmonica. He carries this singing style through to the last track, the nearly 9 minute Ambulance Blues, which is a kind of low key epic, featuring a simple folky guitar part , joined by harmonica and Rusty Kershaw’s rusty fiddle (don’t know if it actually was, but I imagine it to be). There are some lovely touches here, like when the lyrics wonderfully reflect the music. He sings “burn-outs stub their toes on garbage pails” as he deliberately plays a deep note loudly on guitar that could be a bum note, except that it’s in tune.
It’s criminal that these songs are not better known, or indeed this album, as it’s one of Neil Young’s finest.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Album Review: Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Zuma
Zuma is seldom mentioned as one of Neil Young’s best, somewhat overshadowed by the likes of On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night. Released in 1975, it kicks off with Don’t Cry No Tears is a groove that Young and Crazy Horse made their own in the mid-seventies, and it lurches agreeably along in a vaguely countryish fashion. Danger Bird is a slower, more ponderous track featuring some superb guitar soloing in the mid section. It’s a bit like a dry run for Cortez the Killer. Pardon My Heart is for those lovers of acoustic Neil and is a fine example of this, Neil sings it in a restrained fashion, almost apologetic over an intricate acoustic guitar pattern.
Looking for a Love is a kind of poppy country song, and Barstool Blues is pleasingly messy, at one point Young can barely be bothered to sing properly and totally drops the melody for the line: ‘I might live a thousand years before I know what that muuuuhns (means)’. The aforementioned Cortez the Killer is the centrepiece of this album and it enters on some slow but seriously good guitar which lasts for the first 3 and a half minutes of this song before the vocals enter. This was a serious influence on Mark Kozelek, amongst others. The album ends with Through My Sails, recorded with Crosby, Stills and Nash which is a pleasant acoustic song with congas.
Looking for a Love is a kind of poppy country song, and Barstool Blues is pleasingly messy, at one point Young can barely be bothered to sing properly and totally drops the melody for the line: ‘I might live a thousand years before I know what that muuuuhns (means)’. The aforementioned Cortez the Killer is the centrepiece of this album and it enters on some slow but seriously good guitar which lasts for the first 3 and a half minutes of this song before the vocals enter. This was a serious influence on Mark Kozelek, amongst others. The album ends with Through My Sails, recorded with Crosby, Stills and Nash which is a pleasant acoustic song with congas.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Concert Review: Mark Kozelek - Andrews Lane, Dublin, July 2009
Catching up with my concert reviews again! We had previously seen Mark Kozelek last year with his wonderful band Sun Kil Moon. It was a full band show, the sound was wonderful and the band evoked Crazy Horse in their prime with long drawn-out indulgent numbers.
This time it was just Kozelek solo, with a guitar. Anybody who's seen him before knew what to expect, and he was no different this time. He treated us to solo versions of mainly Sun Kil Moon songs (Blue Orchids in particular being a highpoint), while staying away for the most part from Red House Painters songs, barring one or two of their less celebrated songs. His voice as usual was treated with masses of reverb, which was disconcerting for a few first-timers I ran into.
He played a couple of new songs which were met with rapturous applause, after which he said "it wasn't THAT good". His between song chatter was, as usual, dripping with attitude. It's as if he has to be like that otherwise people would mistake him for a sensitive soul considering how emotive many of his songs can be. He also found time to pay tribute to Michael Jackson, playing I'll Be There in his own inimitable style, where he takes a song and transforms it into his own acoustic style.
Enjoyable, though not for the uninitiated.
This time it was just Kozelek solo, with a guitar. Anybody who's seen him before knew what to expect, and he was no different this time. He treated us to solo versions of mainly Sun Kil Moon songs (Blue Orchids in particular being a highpoint), while staying away for the most part from Red House Painters songs, barring one or two of their less celebrated songs. His voice as usual was treated with masses of reverb, which was disconcerting for a few first-timers I ran into.
He played a couple of new songs which were met with rapturous applause, after which he said "it wasn't THAT good". His between song chatter was, as usual, dripping with attitude. It's as if he has to be like that otherwise people would mistake him for a sensitive soul considering how emotive many of his songs can be. He also found time to pay tribute to Michael Jackson, playing I'll Be There in his own inimitable style, where he takes a song and transforms it into his own acoustic style.
Enjoyable, though not for the uninitiated.
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