Title: After the gold rush
Artiste: Neil Young
Year: 1970
Chronological position: Third solo album
Previous experience of this artiste?: A few singles, a few live performances, and “Harvest”, which I didn't like much.
Why is this considered a classic? I'm not sure, but it's one of Neil Young's best known records.
My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Great
Comments: A year or two, or more, back, I ran a section for a week in which I reviewed and featured only music and albums from the seventies. During that “70s Week” I had the chance to review one of two classic Neil Young albums, and eventually went for “Harvest”. I did not enjoy it much, so I'm hoping now that the other choice open to me at the time will yield better results. I already know the title track of course, and I think I know
Only love can break your heart but the rest will be new to me, so let's see how I get on.
Well I was warned it was very country-oriented, and so it proves as we open with
Tell me why, which reminds me of The Eagles or early Dan Fogelberg. Nice boppy, uptempo song on acoustic guitar, breezy and pleasant. Like the vocal harmonies. Of course I know and love the title track, always did. Not a clue what it's about though. Maybe colonisation as humanity leaves Earth behind? The "chosen ones" spoken of in the lyric who are "flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun"? Again it's acoustic, though this time on piano. Oh yeah, with some flugelhorn too. Sweet. And yes, I do know
Only love can break your heart. Great song, a real swaying ballad. Doing well so far.
First signs of electric guitar and Neil comes out rockin' with
Southern man. Great guitar solos. Hey, that's weird! Sounds like Bon Jovi ripped off some of this melody for
Burnin' for love from their debut album! I knew I had heard it somewhere before. Love
Till the morning comes, pity it's so short, but then it's followed by
Oh lonesome me --- hmm, it's a cover. Lose points for that I'm afraid. Still a great song though. Next track is great too. And the next. I love
When you dance, I can really love, and
I believe in you is a gorgeously understated track, which kind of brings us to the end, with
Cripple Creek ferry and that's, well, pretty good. But short, and a little lacklustre compared to just about all the tracks preceding it. Slight letdown right at the very end.
Favourite track(s): Everything except maybe the closer, and even that was ok
Least favourite track(s): None
Final impression --- Love this album. A massive improvement on “Harvest” and it's certainly something I'd be listening to again and again. I can see why it's so highly regarded, and rightly so.
Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
A very solid A
And as for the rating, has to be
