Neil Young Listening Club

Blimey, you wait weeks for a decent record and then two come along at the same time.

It looks like itā€™s on YouTube?

Anyway, giving ā€˜This Noteā€™ a spin, so I can say that Iā€™ve listened to every 80s Neil Young album, and itā€™sā€¦ better than the last 3? Only on the first track.

1 Like

Donā€™t be so quick to heap it with such praise! Itā€™s really quite bad!

1 Like

Got bored of it and am listening to Pachanga Boys instead

2 Likes

One great track, but what a track. Blew my mind when I found out Time was built around a Sufjan sample.

1 Like

Nahhh, fuck off. Not having that.

[looks it up]

Aww, this is lovely stuff.

1 Like

Oh cool they also did a remix of the Royksopp/Susanne Sundfor song.

Gonna stop talking about not-Neil Young in this thread now.

I like the John Talabot remix they did too. Now I too will stop ruining the Neil Young thread

Eldorado was a big step up from everything else in recent weeks. The title track, Cocaine Eyes and Donā€™t Cry were all crackers on first listen.

Yessssssssssss.

Iā€™m so delighted that people will get into Eldorado off this thread.

1 Like

One Iā€™d honestly never heard of before! Would have never thought to check it out otherwise, so v glad for it.

1 Like

The version of donā€™t cry on this is much better than the one on Freedom. Whole thing has more room to breathe, that droning rhythm guitar sounds fantastic and as for those bits. Well they still sound like someone being slaughtered.

Cocaine Eyes is genuinely unhinged. Ripping guitar sound. Banging vocal, good doing all round.

Have always been able to live without On Broadway but actually itā€™s brought into decent focus here. Rattly old thing.

I absolutely love the title track. No major differences, even though itā€™s basically a dire straits track (more on that later) it still has his most terrifying moment built into it. Also worry that my speakers are going to blow :smiley:

Basically him hitting all the marks he missed every time he plugged in from reactor onwards.

Fwiw I did this notes for you this morning as well and it wasnā€™t as bad as I thought itā€™d be. the ballads sound likeā€¦dire straits. Which is ok if youā€™re doing that grizzled thing but when the upbeat numbers are that hideous commitments thing it really isnā€™t for me at all. You can hear hints of whatā€™s to come though, but compare anything on there with zero to sixty and itā€™s failings are brought into stark relief. Once again couldā€™ve worked but ridiculous editing decisions have left it in the 4/10 camp for me.

Again awful artwork for everything. freedom in particular (which Iā€™ll get to) is a horror show.

Any listening club crew around for el dorado/freedom when it first appeared? Did it feel like he might be essential again? When did you guys pick these up? Freedom was the first NY I bought for myself as mum and dad had all the classic 70ā€™s stuff. Think Q ran an album buying guide on him and Freedom was listed as ā€˜essentialā€™ so I picked it up (was maybe 16?) and was surprised to find my fragile Neil absolutely burning the place down. Got under my skin fairly quickly I have to say.

2 Likes

Fell a bit behind and listened to the last three records back to back. Think Landing on Water and This Noteā€™s for You were mostly dreadful. Both just sound really dated, too slick and for me rivalling Long May You Run as my least favourite NY records. Whilst with Trans or Everybodyā€™s Rockinā€™, they felt like knowing experiments whilst LoW and Noteā€™s just felt like stabs at something contemporary and just fall flat. Life fared much, much better as it somewhat captured some of the brilliance of Re-ac-tor and made what to revisit that album too. Wrote some garbled notes whilst I listened to these albums (see below). Dead excited for Eldorado and Freedom!

Landing on Water - Weight of the World is a tight opening but oh god things take a nosedive from there with Violent Side - oh god that choirā€¦ (might be a contender for my new least favourite Neil track). Guess Hippie Dream is alright, mainly because it feels more a throwback and the synths are used more to add another layer to the track rather than being front and centre. Uggghhh those drums on Bad News Beat :frowning: - just horribly dated. Fucking hell People on the Street! Really tinny production. Donā€™t mind Drifter.

Life - Vivid storytelling on Mideast Vacation. Long Walk Home sounds a bit more like classic Neil. Lots of gun shot effects on the first two tracksā€¦ Feels a bit like an expansion of Re-ac-tor. Hmm chipmunk vocals on Around the Worldā€¦ Definitely a step up from Landing on Water, probably because of Crazy Horseā€™s involvement. Thereā€™s much more bite to this album. Cryinā€™ Eyes is a proper stomper. We Never Danced is quite sweet.

This Noteā€™s for You - Hmm brassy opener. Like the sarky anti-sponsor messaging lyrics in the title track. Jazzy Neil? Coupe de Ville is super smoooooth. The bluesy numbers like Canā€™t Belive your lyinā€™ are much stronger here. Mainly just a bit dull overall.

EL DORADO:

Cocaine Eyes: verse melodyā€™s reminiscent of Keep on Rockinā€™, and seems like it could go on for hours but just kindaā€¦ fades out. Shame, that.

Donā€™t Cry: lovely chord changes in the verse. Thatā€™s why heā€™s so good, isnā€™t it? The style of the song itself is quite interesting, too - seems influenced by yer Pixies and yer Dinosaur Jrs of this world, which is very circularā€¦

Heavy Love: WHY DIDNā€™T HE MAKE ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN THE REST OF THE 80s? Seriously, each of the first 3 tracks of this EP are better than anything else from ReĀ·acĀ·tor onwards (possibly excluding Trans)

On Broadway: Hmmmm. Weakest so far

El Dorado: Lovely stuff, albeit a bit Dire Straits/Eagles-y. Nice bassline.

2 Likes

Do you think ā€˜Rockinā€™ in the Free Worldā€™ is his most well-known song with the general public? Could be ā€˜Heart of Goldā€™ i suppose.

Playlist is back, choose one off El Dorado and two off Freedom.

El Dorado

  • Cocaine Eyes
  • Donā€™t Cry
  • Heavy Love
  • On Broadway
  • El Dorado

0 voters

Freedom

  • Rockin in the Free World (acoustic)
  • Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Pt.1)
  • Donā€™t Cry
  • Hangin on a Limb
  • Eldorado
  • The Ways of Love
  • Someday
  • On Broadway
  • Wrecking Ball
  • No More
  • Too Far Gone
  • Rockin in the Free World

0 voters

I literally hadnā€™t heard a single song by NY until I started actively listening to his albums in my early 20s. Probably has much more mainstream popularity in America due to classic rock radio etc., but his biggest songs by far on Spotify and Youtube are ā€˜Heart of Goldā€™, ā€˜Harvest Moonā€™ and ā€˜Old Manā€™.

Loved both of these this week. Such a step up from most of what heā€™d done for the rest of the decade! Donā€™t Cry is brilliant and, while that really nasty distortion took a bit of getting used to, I grew to love it. Never got on with Rockinā€™ In The Free World - just always felt a bit cheesy. But even that has sounded good this week.

2 Likes

All right, onwards and upwards we go.

Up next: We venture into the 90ā€™s with Neil and Crazy Horse back at the helm.

Ladies and gentleman for your listening pleasure this week, I present to youā€¦

(Released September 9th, 1990, ā€œRagged Gloryā€)
image

2 Likes

Full of those wonderful long, fuzzy, rattly, stretched out jams that only Neil and Poncho, Billy & Ralph can pull off. There really is no finer sound than the Horse at full gallop. A very strong contender for my favourite NY album.

100 out of 5.

6 Likes