AMS Album of the Week 4

You might be wondering why the AMS are talking about Neil Young. You might be thinking, Neil Young’s not cool, he’s not relevant, he’s just some shit old country singer that nobody cares about anymore. I used to be like you. I always had this preconception of him as bland and uninspiring. The Status Quo of singer-songwriters. The Ben Howard of the 60s (yeah, I went there). Then, a few months ago, whilst going through a list of ‘the greatest albums of all time’, I decided to actually listen to After the Goldrush. It turns out he’s amazing. He’s not even particularly country. His career is ridiculously varied, I mean, the man (kind of) invented grunge. Some of his albums are, very rightly, considered amongst the greatest ever written. Honestly, he’s really worth a listen. Give him a go. I’d personally suggest On the Beach as the ideal starting place, but After the Goldrush is also fantastic.

I should probably talk about the album a bit. It’s another collaboration with his intermittent backing band Crazy Horse. It’s 90 minutes of noise drenched psychedelic hard rock. It’s great. From the first track to the last it’s a really interesting listen. It is a double album, so of course there are bits which feel a little extraneous, but the vast majority is really good. The album is full of brave decisions, such as making the first song a 28 minute swirling psychedelic jam. Normally, if a band opened an album with such a long song, I’d be highly abusive. It shouldn’t work, 28 minute songs should be put at the end an album, or ideally, the bonus disc that I will never ever listen to. However, here, it completely works. It fits into the ethos of the whole thing. Neil Young doesn’t care about what music should be. He has a voice you could shave boulders with. Neil Young does whatever the hell he wants, and he’s a good enough songwriter that it (usually) works.

It’s obviously not his best album, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend starting with it. However, it is the best new album I’ve heard in a good few months and for those of you who are already Neil Young fans, I’d definitely recommend it.

by Stuart Masson