Friday, April 28, 2006
On Living With War
In case you haven't been on the internet lately, Neil Young's got a new album. It's been rightly described by many as, "incendiary". Sure is.
I like to divide Neil's work up by half-decade. Roughly, anyway. You've got the Buffalo Springfield era. The CSNY era. The early 70s. The Dark period. The fogotten early 80s. The wacky 80s. The late-80s/early-90s comeback. The late-90s laziness. And the diverse '00s.
By not fitting in, this one fits right in there with the diverse '00s. It's hard, like Ragged Glory, but without the annoying feedback; in fact, there's not much lead guitar at all. The focus is more on rhythm. It's got some horns, but nothing like on This Note's For You. It's got a singular purpose, like Greendale, but no storyline and more manageable songs. But like every other electric album he's made since Sleeps With Angels, it's rough and underproduced. That's not a bad quality, but it takes some adjustment. Neil never tries to win a Grammy for his studio work.
After the Garden - Awesome opener. Great guitar line and drums. It really stands out that this is a three-piece with the Volume Dealers. Molina doesn't drum with this much funk. Aggressive.
Living With War - Chorus really sets in. Kind of plays like a rough hymn. The horn doesn't really go, but it's different. I like it, but I guess I'd rather the chorus alternated lyrics with Neil. I can see CSNY playing this on tour this summer.
The Restless Consumer - Great lyrical track; funny and angry with a fast, insistent groove. "Don't need" -- over and over like a ritual chant.
Shock and Awe - Eh. Average rocker that could slide into Ragged Glory or Broken Arrow. I like the choral-lead vocal variety better here. The horn is kind of funereal.
Families - I'm glad he didn't overdo the sap factor here. One wouldn't expect a track called "Families" to have this much guitar. I didn't think Neil was capable of righting the two and half-minute rocker (everything he's done lately is 6-minutes, minimum), but he does it here.
Flags of Freedom - Eh. All right. Tracks like this an Shock and Awe show how hard it is to have a single-focus album. Not all the songs are going to jump out at you and shake you upside down.
Let's Impeach the President - This is the track getting all the coverage. Starts a bit slow, but really cooks during the middle, with some strategic quotations set against an even more strategic (and hilarious) shout of Flip....Flop, which gets louder and louder. There is no more obvious statement song than this. If you don't agree with his politics -- and I'm not on the bandwagon -- you have to admire the passion, as well as how clever he is. The sense of frustration and loss of possibility is palpable, and that is something that can be shared across the aisle and across red- and blue-colored states.
Lookin' for a Leader - OK. Lyrically (like everything else here) it's very pointed. This isn't a song he'll be playing three years from now (kind of like "Ordinary People"). It's melody is brought down by its repetitiveness, but it's not bad.
Roger and Out - Terrific slow track. Those two simple, little guitar lines keep coming back to you behind Neil's slow, sad vocal. Nice backing vocals near the end. My favorite track on the album, and probably my favorite song of his in years . . . .
America the Beautiful - All chorus. Crosby did this on one of his records. This strikes me as a bit cliched, but they do a nice job with it. The mix is well-done. Whoever was behind the controls was smart enough to let certain voices stand out.
This is stand-out Neil. We are too lucky to get this much quality Neil so late in his career. Look at other artists his age -- Dylan, Clapton, CSN, Stones, Eagles -- none of them are close to being as active as Neil. He could have finished up with Silver and Gold in 2000 and I would have been happy. It's remarkable. This isn't his best, of course - he doesn't have a best (except for a certain song I've written a bit about). And being as political and angry as it is, I don't think it will reach the status of some of his other great work (in terms of multiple plays). But I will say this for him: this is a younger man's album - lyrically, musically, and socially.
I like to divide Neil's work up by half-decade. Roughly, anyway. You've got the Buffalo Springfield era. The CSNY era. The early 70s. The Dark period. The fogotten early 80s. The wacky 80s. The late-80s/early-90s comeback. The late-90s laziness. And the diverse '00s.
By not fitting in, this one fits right in there with the diverse '00s. It's hard, like Ragged Glory, but without the annoying feedback; in fact, there's not much lead guitar at all. The focus is more on rhythm. It's got some horns, but nothing like on This Note's For You. It's got a singular purpose, like Greendale, but no storyline and more manageable songs. But like every other electric album he's made since Sleeps With Angels, it's rough and underproduced. That's not a bad quality, but it takes some adjustment. Neil never tries to win a Grammy for his studio work.
After the Garden - Awesome opener. Great guitar line and drums. It really stands out that this is a three-piece with the Volume Dealers. Molina doesn't drum with this much funk. Aggressive.
Living With War - Chorus really sets in. Kind of plays like a rough hymn. The horn doesn't really go, but it's different. I like it, but I guess I'd rather the chorus alternated lyrics with Neil. I can see CSNY playing this on tour this summer.
The Restless Consumer - Great lyrical track; funny and angry with a fast, insistent groove. "Don't need" -- over and over like a ritual chant.
Shock and Awe - Eh. Average rocker that could slide into Ragged Glory or Broken Arrow. I like the choral-lead vocal variety better here. The horn is kind of funereal.
Families - I'm glad he didn't overdo the sap factor here. One wouldn't expect a track called "Families" to have this much guitar. I didn't think Neil was capable of righting the two and half-minute rocker (everything he's done lately is 6-minutes, minimum), but he does it here.
Flags of Freedom - Eh. All right. Tracks like this an Shock and Awe show how hard it is to have a single-focus album. Not all the songs are going to jump out at you and shake you upside down.
Let's Impeach the President - This is the track getting all the coverage. Starts a bit slow, but really cooks during the middle, with some strategic quotations set against an even more strategic (and hilarious) shout of Flip....Flop, which gets louder and louder. There is no more obvious statement song than this. If you don't agree with his politics -- and I'm not on the bandwagon -- you have to admire the passion, as well as how clever he is. The sense of frustration and loss of possibility is palpable, and that is something that can be shared across the aisle and across red- and blue-colored states.
Lookin' for a Leader - OK. Lyrically (like everything else here) it's very pointed. This isn't a song he'll be playing three years from now (kind of like "Ordinary People"). It's melody is brought down by its repetitiveness, but it's not bad.
Roger and Out - Terrific slow track. Those two simple, little guitar lines keep coming back to you behind Neil's slow, sad vocal. Nice backing vocals near the end. My favorite track on the album, and probably my favorite song of his in years . . . .
America the Beautiful - All chorus. Crosby did this on one of his records. This strikes me as a bit cliched, but they do a nice job with it. The mix is well-done. Whoever was behind the controls was smart enough to let certain voices stand out.
This is stand-out Neil. We are too lucky to get this much quality Neil so late in his career. Look at other artists his age -- Dylan, Clapton, CSN, Stones, Eagles -- none of them are close to being as active as Neil. He could have finished up with Silver and Gold in 2000 and I would have been happy. It's remarkable. This isn't his best, of course - he doesn't have a best (except for a certain song I've written a bit about). And being as political and angry as it is, I don't think it will reach the status of some of his other great work (in terms of multiple plays). But I will say this for him: this is a younger man's album - lyrically, musically, and socially.
