It came out today? What did people think about it? Personally, I loved it. It stayed very faithful to the live performances in the States. My only complaint is that I enjoyed the solo accoustic "Bandit" more than whats on the album. All and all, though, its a completely enjoyable album in almost every sense. I can't wait to watch the DVD tomorrow.
― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)
First listen: it is the best of the mediocre recent records, starting with
Mirror Ball. I think
Sleeps With Angels was his last great record. I would give this one a solid B grade.
I think it will reveal itself with further listens, as it's really the concept that makes this record work most of the time. I had extremely low expectations for a concept record from Neil - I thought he'd really lost it - but he's pulled it off pretty well.
Things I like about it:
- The Horse is in fine form
- The live-in-a-live-room recording/production is beautiful
- Songs get stronger as it goes on
- It demands another listen as soon as you're done
- 'Be The Rain' is a great closer, a prototypical Neil/Horse one-riff, four-chord rocker that would be a disaster in other hands given the cheeseball lyrics
Things I don't like so much:
- Too many long songs. One or two per album is great. Many of the long ones don't have adequately inciendiary guitar playing for me to stay interested (or rich enough songwriting . . . see next point)
- Too many two-chord vamps, songs that you wish would go in more directions
- 'Sun Green', with the megaphone stuff, is going to be tough to listen to more than a few times, even though it's a relatively strong piece of songwriting
Well, it's definitely better than another Neil record I bought yesterday - Reactor - which I had to have as a completist but barely ever listened to on vinyl.
― southern lights (southern lights), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)
> WHERE IS PONCHO????
Doesn't he play keyboards on it? I know he did in concert, but yeah, I guess he's not listed on the album credits.
― Adam Harrison-Friday, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)
One of my co-workers is playing it on the PC next to me right now, and it sounds good, to the extent I can hear it. (We are still near the public.)
― Al Andalous, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)
five years pass...
I wasn't sure which of the 834 Greendale threads to bump, but this seemed most appropriate since I want to talk about the music. I'm a huge, huge Neil fan but this was one of the few that I just never bothered to check out, I guess I was easily scared off by the negative reviews and the whole "movie/concept" thing. Anyway, this is actually not bad for a latter-day Neil album! Lots of that fuzzy guitar sound that I can never get enough of. Shouldn't have been so dismissive of this.
― display names have been changed to protect the innocent (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 15 April 2009 13:40 (sixteen years ago)
album is ridiculously flawed, but in a way that only Neil Young can pull off. Honestly, the best way to hear this is probably the acoustic version he performed in Europe before the album came out ...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 15 April 2009 14:28 (sixteen years ago)
one year passes...