NEIL YOUNG - PSYCHEDELIC PILL
As the twang and jangle of the familiar acoustic guitar fades in and the unique strain of vocals commence in that often imitated whine, all seems very Crosby Stills Nash and Young version of Neil Young.
It's starts almost like a spiritual sister song to 1999's Looking Forward but in reverse.
And then the Crazy Horse kick in.
Then suddenly it's 1979 or 1990 and the rusted, ragged Horse are back.
Earlier this year, Neil Young re-united his long time backing band and released an album very quickly. The resulting release - Americana was an 11 track series of cover songs. "Traditional" folk songs chosen by Neil and his reformed Horse. I praised that album to no end, saying how good it was to have the Horse chugging along behind Young, who sounded looser and enjoying himself, even despite the darker themes throughout.
It was a relief after Le Noise which was just begging to have the Horse (Or even the Stray Gators, CSN or somebody) backing up. Young by himself should stick to acoustic, country, in fact anything that isn't his riff-driven grunge. It's lifeless without the pounding drums and galloping bass-lines.
Americana, now in hindsight feels much more like a warm up set for Psychedelic Pill. Bringing the old gang back together for a run out of covers before you get to work on your longest album to date (87:41!)
"Drifitin' Back" with it's dreamlike chorus and glorious Young fighting the guitar solos, does have some flaws. First, other than the first play through, you're very unlikely to re-listen to whole track again. It's 27 and a goddamn half minutes long. (Which is 5 minutes longer than Genesis' progressive opus "Supper's Ready" for Christ tap dancing sake!) It's far too long. Simple as. If this was 10 minutes long, it could of been one of the strongest songs post-1990 for Young. The lyrics have some nice references to "Waging Heavy Peace" and day's gone by. It also has a rant about Young's hatred for MP3s. Neil has never sounded so old, yet he really does back his case for the Last Hippie Standing award. He still has something to say, something I thought impossible after Living with War.
The title track follows and strangely enough comes in two versions, the first is heavily affected by a phaser filter effect, while the second has it removed. The latter is the better version. The song itself is very passable, if also very forgettable. The fact it has pretty much has a identical riff to "Sign of Love" (From 2010's Le Noise/Last album of original songs. Yeah I know.) which is also pretty much a reworking of Cinnamon Girl.
We then fall into the next long epic "Ramada Inn" a great track. Much better structured than "Drifitin' Back" and a song where the length doesn't effect it's replay value . In "Born in Ontario" we get a delightful 'throwaway' song that is refreshingly upbeat where Young sings about his heritage and roots.
"Twisted Road" is another little throwaway where Neil name drops Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" like crazy while still giving nods to the Grateful Dead too. Not bad at all but compared with the rest of the album, It is probably the weakest track.
The final three tracks are easily the strongest and a great finale to a great album. Starting with "She's Always Dancing" in which captures a very Danny Whitten sounding Horse working in sync with Young. Every time Neil and the Crazy Horse have recorded an album post-Zuma we all expect the sludgy grunge "Rust Never Sleeps", "Ragged Glory", "Sleeps with Angels" are all examples done right. But rarely do we get to feel the pre-Zuma Horse. We do here and it is wonderful.
"For the Love of Man" also jumps to a different era of Young. Harking closest to the Harvest Moon days. That alone should tell you enough. It shuffles along with great lyrics and never over stays it's welcome.
The epic conclusion, one of Neil Young's greatest latter day songs, "Walk like a Giant" rounds of the album.
And it fucking rocks. From the sarcastic whistle from the Horse to the fantastic chorus The song rarely puts a foot wrong, the length feels just right and other than the bombastic noise of an ending, I find myself nitpicking to find criticism.
Psychedelic Pill is unsurprisingly great album that leads on from Americana perfectly. Neil Young is a hardworking man these days and I can not wait for his third release this year (The live album "Alchemy").
Keep on rockin' Neil.
Psychedelic Pill
1. Driftin' Back - 7/10
2. Psychedelic Pill - 3/10
3. Ramada Inn - 8/10
4. Born in Ontario - 7/10
5. Twisted Road - 6/10
6. She's Always Dancing - 8/10
7. For the Love of Man - 8/10
8. Walk like a Giant 9/10
9. Psychedelic Pill (Alt) 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment