Neil Young - Psychedelic Pill (USA 2012)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review.

Neil has been a busy boy this year with this being his second release with Crazy Horse, after the earlier "Americana " set. This double CD set I picked up on my recent expedition to Auckland, seeing as it was only 20 bucks for a double set and it was high on my purchase list .

This set sounds like classic young and Crazyhorse, all the usual ingredients are present and any one familiar with Neil's previous work with the horse will feel right at home. The set opens with the mammoth 27 minute "Driftin' Back", one of three extended jams, and jams they are. At that length, it is difficult to maintain interest through out and the middle section of the song kinda stalls and sounds a bit insipid, before some classic Young/Horse guitar noodlings improves things somewhat.  "Ramada Inn" is the second of the extended tracks but far shorter at a more modest 17 minutes and is a better song than the opener. The final extended track is the superior "Walk Like a Giant" and is on par with Young's last great marathon track " Ordinary People" from the Chrome Dreams II album. The rest of the album is chock full of classic Crazyhorse and although none of it has really grabbed hold of me yet, I get a strong feeling that most of this album will grow in stature as familiarity takes hold. Rating 4/5.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Americana (USA 2012)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review

01. Oh Susannah (5:03)

02. Clementine (5:43)

03. Tom Dula (8:14)

04. Gallows Pole (4:15)

05. Get A Job (3:02)

06. Travel On (6:47)

07. High Flyin' Bird (5:30)

08. Jesus' Chariot (She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain) (5:39)

09. This Land Is Your Land (5:27)

10. Wayfarin' Stranger (3:08)

11. God Save The Queen (4:09)

The second CD I purchased last weekend wasn't on my list but I was aware it was coming out sooner or later and so grabbed it when I saw it. Looking at the track list of old time sing-a-long songs that we probably all could sing along to such as "Oh Susannah", "Clementine" "Coming Round The Mountain" and "Tom Dula" doesn't sound all that inviting to my ears and evokes some childhood memories of camp sing songs and even Sunday school. Not particularly fond memories. Neil has taken these songs and given them the Crazyhorse treatment and presented us with some great rockin' adaptations of  these songs that is surprisingly good. Apart from the Lyrics, these songs are barely recognisable and that is a good thing as Neil makes these tracks almost his own. Most enjoyable and far better than "Le Noise", the last disc I brought from him. Rating 4/5.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory (USA 1990)

Roddus Album Of The Day

This little baby has been sitting here ready to review for several months, but got put on hold as I got so busy lately with other things and so I thought I had better deal with it now and get it out of my draft folder. Ragged Glory is the third in a trio of excellent albums Neil released at the end of the 80's marking a serious comeback to form. It was about this time that I really started to discover his earlier music, as I wasn't at all interested in him in my earlier Punk days and because of that disinterest I missed seeing him play here in 1984.

This excellent quality digital recording done with his rockin' band Crazy horse, certainly rocks out in most of the songs here and there is a consistent quality across this whole album. Farmer John is a great cover of an older song that I am familiar with but Neils version has become the most familiar to me. Songs like the most excellent "Love & only love" reminds me of Pearl Jam, who were just starting out at this time."f**king Up" is also a timeless classic. Pretty much vintage young throughout except one small criticism with the early digital production making the sound of the music sound a little  sterile or processed. Overtly polished May be a more apt description. So my rating is 4.5/5.