NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE / Psychedelic Pill [2012]

After the crapfest that was Americana from earlier in the year, Neil Young & Crazy Horse release their 2nd album of 2012, the 2-CD opus Psychedelic Pill with far better results. 

A sober trip back into mildly sour nostalgia and bittersweet memoirs, through swampy textures and tingles of distorted guitars that flow with ease through many tracks that are laid back jam sessions.  Bouncing back and forth between a variety of moods, Pill is Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the comfort zone, that maybe American helped them get into to record a quality album of this size.

3½ MP3 rants out of 5

Songs Of Note: Driftin' Back; For The Love Of Man

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE / Americana [2012]

After nearly a 9 years hiatus, Neil Young gathers together Crazy Horse for, not 1, but 2 albums for 2012.  The first being Americana, an album of well-known folk songs given back the bite that they used to have before they became elementary school staples.  

Add Old Man Young's fuzzy guitar tones & wobbly Muppet voice to these aged songs in your head and you pretty much know exactly what's on this album, with the exception of two bizarre head-scratchers.  It's sloppily played, not very well thought out, longer takes than they should be and completely pales in comparison to Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album that did the same thing only light years better.  

1 Silhouettes? out of 5

Songs Of Note: Clementine; Wayfarin' Stranger

NEIL YOUNG / Unplugged (1993)

Neil's 'Unplugged' session is a quiet affair, mixing tracks from a large part of his career. It's a blend of classic songs that suit the format beautifully, and some lesser works that casual fans may not know so well. It feels a little lazy at times, as if he's working on automatic, but it scores points for having a previously unreleased track called 'Stringman', which dates from 1976.
More hits, and less random laziness would have made this essential.

Songs of Note: Stringman; The Needle and the Damage Done

3½ musical rides out of 5

NEIL YOUNG / Chrome Dreams II (2007)

Neil Young needs no introduction; he's that old guy that old guys listen to. I don't much like his rocking Crazy Horse albums, but I adore his solo acoustic stuff. Chrome Dreams II is closer in spirit to the latter but has a lot of the former, and somehow manages to be the best thing he's released since Harvest Moon (1992). Even Neil knows it, hence the title (go research it). Listen to the 18 minute 'Ordinary People' and you'll understand why I love everything about this. It's perhaps his last great hurrah and, aside from one turd, as close to perfect as he can still get(?).

Songs of Note: Beautiful Bluebird, Ordinary People

5 old guys know what's what out of 5