Record Reviews

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Artist Title Review
Neil Young Way Down In The Rust Bucket <p>Recorded in 1990 at a small Santa Cruz club, this joyous live document flips the energy of 1991's Weld on its head, swapping out incendiary arena rockers for oddball picks and warm, woolly vibes.</p><p>Neil Young entered the 1990's acting as if his erratic 1980's never happened. He spent the bulk of the '80s sowing wild oats while in an unhappy union with Geffen Records. The label was so aggrieved by the mercurial singer-songwriter's behavior that they filed suit against Young, accusing him of purposefully delivering uncommercial albums. Perhaps they had a point: Once he returned to his old home at Reprise, he started making music like he had in the old days. Buoyed by the creative and commercial rebirth of 1989's Freedom, Young reconnected with Crazy Horse, the ambling backing band who had supported him through good times and bad since way back in 1969. Picking up a fuzzy strand left hanging from Rust Never Sleeps, the 1979 album that represented their last great triumph, Young and Crazy Horse knocked out Ragged Glory at his Broken Arrow Ranch in a few weeks. The quick sessions resulted in an album with a spontaneous feel; it was the liveliest and loudest Crazy Horse had ever sounded in the studio.</p><p>As a full-bore rock'n'roll record, Ragged Glory was an ideal album to take out on the road, which is precisely what Neil Young and Crazy Horse did, spending the first four months of 1991 roaring through North America's arenas with supporting acts Sonic Youth and Social Distortion in tow. Young's decision to bring a pair of prominent alternative rockers on tour underscored the wild, untamed character of his work with Crazy Horse, with its swirls of distortion and primitive thump. The ensuing live 2xLP, Weld, and feedback-laden Arc EP tapped into the arena-sized aggression that fueled the band at its peak, all the way back to 1979's incendiary Live Rust. Way Down in the Rust Bucket, the 12th live album in Young's ongoing (and now absurdly active) Archives series, flips that energy on its head. Here, Crazy Horse aren't interested in assaulting their audience; instead, they're grooving along alongside them.</p><p>Some of this change in tone is surely due to the change in venue. Way Down in the Rust Bucket captures a November 13, 1990 gig at the small Santa Cruz club the Catalyst, a hometown bar that became Young's regular stomping ground in 1977, when he spent the summer figuring out whether his ill-fated group the Ducks had a future. The Ducks didn't survive 1977, but Young's connection to the Catalyst endured; it became a place for him to limber up before heading back out on the road. That's precisely what happened in November 1990: With two months to go before a big arena tour, the time was ripe to kick off the cobwebs. Playing in their own backyard&mdash;for fans who were close enough to be friends, and friends who were more like family&mdash;shaped the concert from its setlist to its execution. Gone are expected crowd-pleasers like "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," "Powderfinger," "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Tonight's the Night," all swapped out for oddball selections designed to scratch some itch of the band: American Stars 'n Bars' cornpone romp "Homegrown," a revved-up reading of the Re·ac·tor deep cut "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze," plus the inane blues stomp "T-Bone."</p><p>As silly as it sounds, "T-Bone" provides the key to unlocking many of Way Down in the Rust Bucket's charms. It's not much of a song&mdash;there are no other lyrics than "Got mashed potatoes/Ain't got no T-Bone"&mdash;yet hearing Crazy Horse lock into a primal rhythm then remain there for nearly seven minutes, as Young delivers each repetition of its lone line as if it's a new punchline, is as invigorating as his elongated solos. There's a direct line connecting this rave-up with "Farmer John," a frat-rock classic from Don & Dewey by way of the Premiers that wound up as a touchstone on Ragged Glory: They're party tunes played by a band intent on having a hell of a good time.</p><p>Young spent 1990 absolutely giddy with the monstrous, transportive racket he could make with Crazy Horse, but those high spirits don't always come through on Weld. Blame some of that on the arena setting; blame some of it on timing. During those early months of 1991, Crazy Horse toured as Operation Desert Storm descended on Iraq, so Young sobered up, putting an earnest and angry version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" in a prominent position in the set list, then leaning into the group's harder edges. Way Down in the Rust Bucket, recorded just months earlier, has no socio-political undertones and no angst; here, "Fuckin' Up" doesn't play as self-immolation, it's merely a heavy shrug. Crazy Horse's immense volume camouflages a sweet hippie heart, an empathy that's apparent in both the selected songs and the warm, woolly performance. This is a joyous record, where even the melancholy epics "Like a Hurricane" and "Cortez the Killer" skirt sadness. Crazy Horse lumber toward bliss, goosed along by a leader who seems so enraptured by his own solos he doesn't want to break the spell. Context also gives these seemingly endless workouts a different vibe. They're surrounded by garage rockers and reconstituted anthems of the counterculture, songs designed to be played and heard in a communal setting. For a dirty, grungy rock'n'roll band, there's no better place to hold communion than the local pub, where the separation between artist and audience can be so thin, it may as well be nonexistent. Maybe that's why Way Down in the Rust Bucket feels transcendent: It captures the world's greatest bar band in their spiritual home.</p><p>&mdash; <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p><hr/><p>History shows us there are plenty of bands where the whole is more than the sum of the parts, and Neil Young & Crazy Horse are a great example of how the right combination of musicians can create a tide that lifts all boats. Though Crazy Horse never do anything especially complicated, the loose but thoroughly deep groove they generate fits Young's musical ideas better than nearly any of his collaborators, and they give him the room to stretch out on guitar and make the most of his noisy explorations of melodic space; Young is rarely as inspired a soloist as he is with Crazy Horse, and they were in especially fine form on 1990's Ragged Glory, where their laid-back thunder brought out some especially inspired performances after a string of inconsistent projects from Young in the '80s. They were about to hit the road in support of the album when they played a pair of shows at The Catalyst, a 800-capacity club in Santa Cruz, California, to familiarize themselves with the material. Way Down in the Rust Bucket gives an authorized release to a previously bootlegged performance on November 13, 1990 when the group ambled through 19 songs in just under two-and-a-half hours. If it's possible to rock hard and seem relaxed at the same time, that's exactly the vibe that informs Way Down in the Rust Bucket. This doesn't match the fire of the arena shows that followed (you can hear what they sounded like on 1991's Weld), but Crazy Horse sound like they're having a great time making their way through most of Ragged Glory and throwing in some favorites from their back catalog along the way (even more surprising than hearing three tunes from 1975's Zuma is the appearance of two from 1981's noisy and idiosyncratic Re-ac-tor).</p><p>Way Down in the Rust Bucket sometimes sounds like the musicians are playing for themselves as much as the audience, suggesting a public rehearsal tape, and that actually works in its favor; Young and his bandmates aren't pushing themselves especially hard, but they find the sweet spot in these songs and ride it for all its worth. Young was clearly having a great night on guitar, with Crazy Horse more than happy to help him out. Way Down in the Rust Bucket isn't one of the more revelatory items to emerge from Neil Young's archives since he began major excavation in the mid-2000s. However, for those who consider the joyous stomp of Neil Young & Crazy Horse rock & roll comfort food at its best, this is a feast to savor, a long and rollicking celebration of the pleasures of turning up the amps and inviting in the spirit.</p><p>&mdash; <strong>Mark Deming</strong></p>
Neil Young Weld <p>Weld, Neil Young's two-hour-plus double-CD chronicle of his 1991 Ragged Glory/Smell the Horse Tour with Crazy Horse, was received with only mild enthusiasm from Young's fans and rock critics, perhaps because it seemed redundant. Such warhorses as "Like a Hurricane" and "Cortez the Killer" were making their fourth appearances on a Young album, and the five songs from the Ragged Glory album were basically unchanged from their studio versions. Containing only 16 tracks, the album's songs averaged over seven and a half minutes in length, and that length was given over to extended guitar improvisations, which often were filled with feedback and distortion. Where Young's previous double live album, Live Rust, which bore some similarities to this one, was a career retrospective including some acoustic numbers, Weld was all electric rock with Crazy Horse. The one previously unreleased song was a Gulf War-era cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," complete with gunshots and exploding bombs. In retrospect, Weld seems like an excellent expression of one part of Young's musical persona, putting some of his best hard rock material onto one album. [Initially, Weld was released in a 25,000 copy limited-edition called Arc Weld (Reprise 26746) containing a third disc made up of guitar feedback and called "Arc."]</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Arc <p>A 35-minute "compilation compositor" by Neil Young, Arc consists of a series of excerpts from 1991 concerts by Young & Crazy Horse strung together. Young has taken the tune-ups and outros, the guitar feedback, and random playing and singing from various songs and shows, and constructed a nearly atonal sound collage. Now and then, he is heard singing a verse or two from "Like a Hurricane" or another song, but for the most part, Arc sounds like a band preparing to play a song that never actually begins or trying to end one that has not been heard. As such, the album ranks with such studies in noise as Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. [Initially, Arc was released in a 25,000-copy limited edition called Arc Weld (Reprise 26746) containing the two discs making up the live album Weld.]</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Harvest Moon <p>Neil Young's sequel to 1972's Harvest found him reuniting with the Stray Gators and inviting along a few other famous friends. Unlike Crazy Horse's sonic bludgeoning, the Gators' light playing featured ethereal-sounding pedal steel and harmonies that caressed like a gentle lover. This was the perfect compliment for Young's songwriting, which was fueled by romantic notions of courtship and deep thought. Young and Nicolette Larson harmonized and became the lovers of "You and Me," whereas Jack Nitzsche's string arrangements made for a nice contrast in "Such a Woman," a bold-faced declaration of love. Other insights into the normally cranky iconoclast's sentimental side include the delicate touch of the title track, which leaves an image of slow-dancing in a dark corner.</p><p>Fast approaching 50, Neil Young also used Harvest Moon to reflect back on his life, particularly in the biographical "One of These Days," and "From Hank to Hendrix," a twangy sequel to "My My, Hey Hey (Out of The Blue)." Young also continued his commitment to the environment by including both a protest against man's destruction of nature ("War of Man") and a live tribute to the forest and jungles recorded at a Portland, Oregon performance that included sounds of the Brazilian rainforest ("Natural Beauty.")</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Heart Of Gold
Neil Young Unplugged <p>Taped on February 7, 1993, and first broadcast on MTV on March 10, Neil Young's Unplugged appearance was released as a home video to coincide with the release of an audio CD version. This 73-minute tape ran seven minutes longer than the album, the extra time consisting of applause, guitar tuning, and a few scattered asides ("Aw, it's nothin', really," Young said, for example, after an audience member called out, "Thank you, Neil"). Young was anything but videogenic in his leather jacket, Harley Davidson T-shirt, jeans, and boots, sitting hunched over his guitar, often scowling as he turned his face, hooded with unruly, grey-flecked hair and partially covered by a week-old stubble, to the microphone. Yet his casual appearance and introspective demeanor served to focus attention on his music. And a 14-song set that on record seemed a random selection from across his career made more sense on video, as Young began with a series of early songs, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, then moving to keyboards and gradually bringing other musicians on-stage to augment the sound. The songs were wistful, midtempo reflections on stardom, love, and the passage of time. Some were familiar, including "Mr. Soul" and "Like a Hurricane," and were given new treatments; others were obscure or even previously unrecorded ("Stringman"). But all were melodic and inviting, especially the selections from Harvest Moon, including the title tune, which featured a broom as a percussion instrument. Unplugged was a low-key Neil Young performance that emphasized the consistency of his work over time and the repetition of certain lyrical themes and musical tendencies. If it avoided some of his best-known folk and country material, it did contain a few crowd-pleasers, and it brought up several forgotten tunes for reconsideration.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Neil Young Live
Neil Young Live, Unapproved
Neil Young Sleeps With Angels Though it once again reunites him with Crazy Horse and includes such typical rock workouts as the lengthy "Change Your Mind" and the raucous "Piece of Crap," Sleeps With Angels is more musically varied than most of Neil Young's albums with his erstwhile backup group, ranging from piano-based ballads like the album opener, "My Heart," and closer, "A Dream That Can Last," which might have fit on After the Gold Rush, to the country-folk "Train of Love," which sounds like a leftover from Harvest Moon, and the hard-edged grunge of the title track. The Crazy Horse influence comes in the songs' structural simplicity and the unpolished playing. Though musically diverse, Sleeps With Angels is a song cycle in which Young repeats the same themes and images. To put it simply, the album is about death, presumably primarily the suicide of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, which occurred while it was being recorded. From "My Heart," which declares, "It's not too late" and "Somehow, someone has a dream come true," to "A Dream That Can Last," which declares, "There's a better life for me someday," Young begins and ends with a shaky, uncertain optimism, even though his language is riddled with references to violence, especially gunfire, and desperation. As in the album's title, even the references to sleep and dreams are about death. Young repeats some of the same lines from song to song and sometimes the same music ("Western Hero" and "Train of Love" have the same tune). The album thus has a tired, mournful feel that is both compelling and off-putting. Young had not investigated such forbidding territory since the days of Tonight's the Night and On the Beach, and Sleeps With Angels is on a par with those often harrowing works.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Mirrorball </p>Neil Young uses Pearl Jam on Mirror Ball much as he has used his perennial backup band Crazy Horse, looking for feel and spontaneity. At the start of the record, he can be heard instructing them: "No tuning, nothing," and the take of "I'm the Ocean" is an obvious run-through that became a master take. But Pearl Jam is not Crazy Horse; in place of the latter's primitive, nonswinging sound, the former boasts spirited rhythms and dense guitar interplay that Young makes excellent use of in a series of songs built out of simple, melodic rifts. Those songs come mostly in pairs: "Song X" and "Act of Love," the first two tracks, both seem to be about abortion, especially in its religious aspect, each containing a reference to "the holy war"; "What Happened to Yesterday" and "Fallen Angel" are song fragments on which Young plays the pump organ; and "Downtown" and "Peace and Love" find Young addressing the musical and philosophical concerns of hippies and contain name checks of Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Led Zeppelin. The songs also share highly imagistic lyrics that are allusive and frequently just obscure. At their best, notably on "I'm the Ocean" and "Scenery," they provide intriguing portraits of the artist -- "People my age/They don't do the things I do," Young sings in "Ocean" -- while "Scenery" is one of his bitter denunciations of celebrity. Such subject matter is not new for Young, and Mirror Ball is typically uneven. But it is always interesting musically, suggesting that he has found another catch-up that works. Probably due to the commercial power of Pearl Jam, the album became Young's highest charting record since Harvest 23 years earlier, though it had a relatively short chart life.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Neil Young Broken Arrow <p>In many ways, Broken Arrow follows the same path as Neil Young's other '90s albums with Crazy Horse. Broken Arrow floats on waves of lumbering guitars and cascading feedback, ebbing and flowing with winding solos and drifting melodies. In a typical display of artistic perversion, Young has front-loaded the album with three epics with a combined running time of just over 25 minutes. Following the three epic-length songs come four concise tunes that range from the country-rock stomp of "Changing Highways" to the reflective "Music Arcade." Like the three songs that preceded them, these songs are uneven, with hazy melodies and underdeveloped lyrics. Finally, a long, live workout of Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What You Want Me to Do" -- which sounds like it was taken from an audience recording -- is tacked onto the end of the album. Although the song is a standout, it raises the question: what is the purpose of Broken Arrow? The album floats from song to song, with the guitars drowning out the sound of Young's voice. There are some fine songs buried amid the long jams, but the album is directionless, and that lack of direction never manages to develop a consistent emotional tone.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Neil Young Year Of The Horse <p>As Neil Young's second double live album of the '90s, Year of the Horse could seem a little redundant to anyone who isn't a die-hard fan. After all, Weld was useful since it appeared ten years after the release of Live Rust, Young & Crazy Horse's first double live album, and it captured them at their peak. Year of the Horse, however, appeared merely five years after Weld, and in between those two records, Young had only released two albums' worth of material that suited these high-voltage, improvised performances. These factors didn't matter since Young decided to allow Jim Jarmusch to make a film documentary about his 1996 tour, and Year of the Horse is the album that was released to coincide with the movie. (It's not really a soundtrack, since these performances don't appear in the film.) It is true that there are many songs here that haven't made Young's previous live albums, but the performances themselves aren't particularly remarkable -- they sound like tired, meandering variations of Weld. There are enough strong moments to make Year of the Horse worthwhile for die-hard fans, but it's too predictable to appeal to anyone else.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Neil Young Year Of The Horse <p>As Neil Young's second double live album of the '90s, Year of the Horse could seem a little redundant to anyone who isn't a die-hard fan. After all, Weld was useful since it appeared ten years after the release of Live Rust, Young & Crazy Horse's first double live album, and it captured them at their peak. Year of the Horse, however, appeared merely five years after Weld, and in between those two records, Young had only released two albums' worth of material that suited these high-voltage, improvised performances. These factors didn't matter since Young decided to allow Jim Jarmusch to make a film documentary about his 1996 tour, and Year of the Horse is the album that was released to coincide with the movie. (It's not really a soundtrack, since these performances don't appear in the film.) It is true that there are many songs here that haven't made Young's previous live albums, but the performances themselves aren't particularly remarkable -- they sound like tired, meandering variations of Weld. There are enough strong moments to make Year of the Horse worthwhile for die-hard fans, but it's too predictable to appeal to anyone else.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Neil Young Acoustic Afternoon
Neil Young Silver & Gold Live <p>Few artists require no introduction. Neil Young is among them. He is undeniably one of the most influential and biggest selling singer-songwriters ever, having been included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.</p><p>To coincide with the worldwide release of his latest studio album Silver and Gold, is the live concert DVD also entitled 'Silver and Gold'. Recorded live at Bass Concert Hall, Texas, during his 1999 tour, 'Silver and Gold' is an intimate showcase for one of the most influential and enduring singer-songwriters of his generation.</p>
Neil Young Silver & Gold <p>Silver & Gold went through a number of incarnations before it was finally released in the spring of 2000. The endless delays raised hopes for the album, as did superstition — dedicated Neil Young fans believed he was creatively reborn at the end of each decade. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Rust Never Sleeps, and Freedom added credence to this theory, but those records were knocked out quickly, appearing a year after their predecessors. In contrast, Silver & Gold appeared four years after Broken Arrow. During those four years, all sorts of projects were in the works for Young, including a 1999 reunion with Crosby, Stills & Nash. His three songs on their comeback Looking Forward were pleasant acoustic numbers that often seemed a little slight. It was easy to assume that Young was saving the real treasures for his solo record, but Silver & Gold doesn't confirm that theory. Instead, it's a continuation of his Looking Forward contributions, performed with the warm, amiable ramble of Harvest Moon. A pleasant sound, to be sure, but not exactly what Young followers were expecting. They also may be a little dismayed to realize that two of its best songs, "Silver & Gold" and "Razor Love," date from 1982 and 1987, respectively, suggesting that Neil may not be at the top of his game. Still, there are no truly bad songs here, although the light-hearted, light-headed reminiscence "Buffalo Springfield Again" treads close to the borderline. It's a low-key, charming, comfortable record, which is hardly a bad thing at all — it just doesn't quite live up to the abnormally high expectations. Fortunately, those expectations fade upon repeated plays, and Silver & Gold reveals itself as a nice Neil Young record. Nothing particularly special, but nice all the same.</p>&mdash; <b>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</b>
Neil Young Road Rock <p>For some reason, Neil Young decided that his 2000 tour was particularly hot, so he decided to record a live album and rush release it by the end of the year. So, that explains the appearance of Road Rock, Vol. 1, an eight-song collection recorded with an ensemble featuring Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Duck Dunn on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Astrid and Pegi Young on vocals -- thereby explaining the "Friends & Relatives" subtitle. This band is pretty good, even supple, but this doesn't feel necessary at any time and suffers from indulgence. And it doesn't shy away from this indulgence, either, opening with an 18-minute "Cowgirl in the Sand" that only diehards could sit through. And, in a sense, that summarizes this album, since only diehards will thrill to an 11-minute "Words," a previously unreleased "Fool for Your Love," a ten-minute "Tonight's the Night," or an "All Along the Watchtower" featuring opener Chrissie Hynde on guitar. This isn't bad, but it's not really good, either, and as the third live album in one decade, it's not just anticlimatic, it's unnecessary even for diehards, who probably would find this more exciting as a bootleg than an official album.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Neil Young Greendale <p>Prior to its release, Greendale received more attention than any Neil Young album in years, but it wasn't positive. Young hauled out his concept album -- about an extended family in a small town called Greendale, and how they're torn apart by a murder -- to unsuspecting audiences, who by and large were not happy about spending anywhere from 55 to 85 dollars to hear a dense convoluted song cycle, complete with rambling narrative from Young, for the first hour of the show and not hearing many hits in the remainder of the set. Early in the summer of 2003, there was a brief blast of stories about this quasi-scandal, setting the stage for the late-summer release of the album: it got Young some needed press, and announced that unlike his last several albums, Young was actually trying this time around. Frankly, he needed a change. Ever since 1994's Sleeps With Angels -- or, if you're less charitable, 1990's Ragged Glory -- he had been drifting, playing with different groups, never quite mustering up enough energy to assemble a consistent set of songs whenever he headed into the studio. Here, the story and the setting give Young a hook for the record, a common theme that he can rally around, and the album benefits so much from that focus that it doesn't really matter that the story is convoluted beyond comprehension; the plot matters so much that it winds up not mattering at all. Close attention and repeated listens offer few rewards to the careful listener, because Young doesn't really say much of anything here, no matter how elaborately he says it. Learning more about the narrative -- whether it's through the simultaneously released DVD of the Young-directed film Greendale, hearing his rambling on-stage between-song narratives, or reading apparent transcriptions of these ramblings in the liner notes -- illuminates the story slightly, even as declarations like "When I was writing this I had no idea what I was doing, so I was just as surprised as you are" emphasize the suspicion that there's not much meaning in the whole enterprise.</p><p>All this doesn't really matter because Greendale works as a record -- it ebbs and flows and it holds together, playing as a unified whole on a level he hasn't approached since Ragged Glory. As Young says in the liner notes, these are things "you can't tell by listening to the songs, you have to listen to the instrumentals to get this," and while that is meant to apply to one of the many Crazy Horse-fueled meandering improvs, it really applies to the album as a whole since Greendale connects in its overall picture, not the details. Sometimes, such as the quietly eerie and affecting "Bandit," the songs stand apart from the concept, but usually the lyrics are too devoted to his winding narrative to be their own entities. Then again, Greendale was designed to be an interconnected song cycle, and if the narrative neither works nor signifies much, it nevertheless kept Young focused on the construction of the album, whether it's giving the songs memorable hooks or finding ways to make the signature ramshackle vibe of Crazy Horse sound both fresh and appropriate for this tale. It all adds up to a very good record -- one that is interesting, and one that satisfies musically. It may not be a latter-day masterpiece on the level of Dylan's Love and Theft, but it most surely is a comeback for an artist who seemed permanently adrift at sea.</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Neil Young Greatest Hits <p>It may be hard to believe, but 2004's Greatest Hits is not only the first retrospective Neil Young has released since 1977's <i>Decade</i>, it's the first ever single-disc collection of his best-known songs. That's a span of 27 years separating the two collections, which is an awful long time to resist a Greatest Hits disc — many of his peers succumbed, offering countless comps during those years — and such a resistance to a compilation may not be much a surprise from the legendarily prickly Young, but what is a surprise is that 11 of the 16 songs on <i>Greatest Hits</i> were also on <i>Decade</i>. Of the five songs that were not on Decade, only two date from after the '70s — 1989's "Rockin' in the Free World" and 1992's "Harvest Moon" — while one of the remaining three (1970's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart") comes from the time chronicled on <i>Decade</i>; the other two, 1978's "Comes a Time" and 1979's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," arrived in the two years of the '70s not covered on the 1977 compilation. </p><p>All this means is that <i>Greatest Hits</i> offers the basic canon, with no frills and none of Neil's trademark idiosyncrasy. Some may miss that cantankerous spirit, pointing out that this contains nothing from his towering twin masterpieces of dark introspection — <i>Tonight's the Night</i> and <i>On the Beach</i> — or that there's nothing from Buffalo Springfield (which was covered on <i>Decade</i>) and that noteworthy songs like "Powderfinger," "Cortez the Killer," "Lotta Love," and "Long May You Run" are missing. Ultimately, that doesn't matter much, because <i>Greatest Hits</i> has all the songs that every Neil Young fan, from the devoted to the casual listener, agrees are his biggest and best: "Down by the River," "Cinnamon girl," "Helpless," "After the Gold Rush," "Southern Man," "Ohio," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Old Man," "Heart of Gold," "Like a Hurricane." And that's why it works as an all-business introduction for the uninitiated and as a concise summary for those not willing to travel down all the long, winding roads Young has traveled over the years. In other words, it's as good a compilation as it could have been. [<i>Greatest Hits</i> was released in several editions. In addition to the basic single CD, there was a limited edition containing a DVD video with the promo clips for "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Harvest Moon." There was another limited edition with a bonus 7" record. Finally, it was also released as a high-resolution DVD Audio disc.]</p><p>&mdash; <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p><hr/><p>Neil Young is the kind of man that appreciates albums in the traditional sense: cohesive beginning-to-end statements, occasionally thematic if the mood suits him, and preferably experienced through big speakers on crackly old vinyl. His resistance to digital music has been well-documented, and until recently, several of his releases&mdash;including 1974's classic On the Beach&mdash;had never been made available on compact disc. So one can imagine him in an A&R; office upstairs at Reprise Records, year after year, continually shooting down the concept of a compilation that attempts to condense his entire history onto a single disc. He's already been compiled once anyway&mdash;with the 1977 3xLP retrospective Decade.</p><p>Regardless, we're now being offered Greatest Hits, although Young does seems begrudging: Its only liner notes are the obligatory song credits and one line from Young himself that simply states, "Greatest hits inclusion based on original record sales, airplay, and known download history." These criteria are not only anathema to his aesthetic (since when does the man behind "This Note's For You" care about airplay?), but here they comprise a collection that only skims the surface of his catalog: The tracklist features 16 songs from his 35-year career, ranging from 1969's "Down by the River" to 1991's "Harvest Moon".</p><p>Young's stubborn integrity extends beyond his politics&mdash;which inform all of his songs, but only define a few like "Ohio" and "Rockin' in the Free World"&mdash;and saturates his music. His catalog is riddled with sharp contrasts and sly contradictions, not least of which is the fact that this bearish-looking man sings with such a fragile falsetto. More crucially, Young moves from ragged guitar epics to jangly country ballads with impressive agility. He's also not one to rein in his songs, so they may often run for only two intense minutes ("The Needle and the Damage Done") or sprawl to upwards of nine ("Down by the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand").</p><p>These extremes make for a strange and strangely compelling Greatest Hits. Conceptually, it shouldn't work: Young has played many roles over five decades, but indeed, he's never been a singles artist. In fact, he has only a passing acquaintance with the pop singles chart&mdash;"Heart of Gold" went to #1, but he's had only two other solo top 40 singles&mdash;and many of his most popular songs run much longer than the typical single's three minutes.</p><p>The disc begins, perversely and brilliantly, with the one-two punch of "Down By the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand", which together total almost 20 minutes. This seems less an act of rebellion than a simple stroke of luck, as the compilation is sequenced chronologically. Even so, the songs illustrate clearly that Young and the hits format aren't exactly perfect for each other, while still constituting an impressive introduction for newcomers. Which is precisely what this record is designed to do.</p><p>Greatest Hits is obviously intended mostly for curious initiates or casual listeners (although the remastered tracks will likely attract hardcore Young fans, too), and it achieves its goals sufficiently. Those unacquainted with his work will learn that Young was a tremendous guitar player who gave himself ample room to range; that Crazy Horse understood the need to provide a good backdrop for his solos and knew how to churn a drag-the-river momentum; that Young was an able songwriter who could craft a killer line like "The Needle and the Damage Done" clincher "every junkie's like a setting sun." What they won't learn is the difference between Young's work with Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills & Nash: All 16 tracks are presented as Young's solo work, which is misleading. Historical liner notes could have cleared this up and even introduced Young's collaborators. Instead, the package leaves it to listeners to infer these distinctions from the song credits.</p><p>Fittingly, Greatest Hits skews to Young's early material: Eleven of these tracks represent his 1969-71 output, and only two songs postdate the 1970s (and, therefore, the still-in-print, two-disc Decade). The implication is that Young more or less faded away, and that his first few albums far outshine his subsequent material. But such a view is surely reductive: Young has not only been actively releasing albums throughout the 90s and into the 00s, but several of them been unexpectedly solid as well. The sadly missed "Cortez the Killer" and "Tonight's the Night" are the set's most obvious exclusions, but the dismissal of late-era tracks like "This Note's for You", "Fuckin' Up", or even "From Hank to Hendrix" is unfortunate, too.</p><p>Of course, it's all too easy to nitpick any greatest-hits tracklist&mdash;any of them could be said to carry grievous omissions or curious inclusions. On one hand, this type of cursory overview isn't supposed to give us a detailed portrait of the artist, only a general sketch; on the other, Young is too complex a musician to be adequately represented by a mere 16 songs. The music on Greatest Hits holds up undeniably well, but the concept itself&mdash;perhaps inevitably&mdash;falters, failing to capture the essence of one of rock's sturdiest and most ragged voices.</p><p>&mdash; <strong>Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork</strong></p>
Neil Young Greatest Hits <p>It may be hard to believe, but 2004's Greatest Hits is not only the first retrospective Neil Young has released since 1977's Decade, it's the first ever single-disc collection of his best-known songs. That's a span of 27 years separating the two collections, which is an awful long time to resist a Greatest Hits disc -- many of his peers succumbed, offering countless comps during those years -- and such a resistance to a compilation may not be much a surprise from the legendarily prickly Young, but what is a surprise is that 11 of the 16 songs on Greatest Hits were also on Decade. Of the five songs that were not on Decade, only two date from after the '70s -- 1989's "Rockin' in the Free World" and 1992's "Harvest Moon" -- while one of the remaining three (1970's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart") comes from the time chronicled on Decade; the other two, 1978's "Comes a Time" and 1979's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," arrived in the two years of the '70s not covered on the 1977 compilation. All this means is that Greatest Hits offers the basic canon, with no frills and none of Neil's trademark idiosyncrasy. Some may miss that cantankerous spirit, pointing out that this contains nothing from his towering twin masterpieces of dark introspection -- Tonight's the Night and On the Beach -- or that there's nothing from Buffalo Springfield (which was covered on Decade) and that noteworthy songs like "Powderfinger," "Cortez the Killer," "Lotta Love," and "Long May You Run" are missing. Ultimately, that doesn't matter much, because Greatest Hits has all the songs that every Neil Young fan, from the devoted to the casual listener, agrees are his biggest and best: "Down by the River," "Cinnamon Girl," "Helpless," "After the Gold Rush," "Southern Man," "Ohio," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Old Man," "Heart of Gold," "Like a Hurricane." And that's why it works as an all-business introduction for the uninitiated and as a concise summary for those not willing to travel down all the long, winding roads Young has traveled over the years. In other words, it's as good a compilation as it could have been. [Greatest Hits was released in several editions. In addition to the basic single CD, there was a limited edition containing a DVD video with the promo clips for "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Harvest Moon." There was another limited edition with a bonus 7" record. Finally, it was also released as a high-resolution DVD Audio disc.]</p><p>&mdash;<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
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