I’m sure that, like me, your record shelves are groaning under barely played LPs and CDs from artists whose every new set of songs you used to eagerly snap up on its day of release.
Up until 2000 or so, new releases by the likes of Neil Young and Van Morrison were barely out before they were home and being played and replayed. Early this century, both Neil and Van moved from the “must buy” to “might buy” category, Neil after the unfortunately titled “Are You Passionate?” (Sorry, Neil, but NFW!) and Van after his equally foolishly monickered “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” (got a couple of hours, Van?).
The intervening two decades have seen me buy the occasional release from both former favourites. After releasing lazy collection after lazy collection of blandly inoffensive wine bar noodlings, finally gave up buying Van albums about 10 years. Ultimately, not even his incredible feat in making a blandly offensive album via which to platform his crackpot anti-vaxx views could persuade me to finance another day of Van’s retirement.
Always the contrarian, NY has been a lot more adventurous in his choices – think A Letter Home and Le Noise. Here again, though, there are big gaps where titles like Monsanto Years, Peace Trail and Earth might once have resided in the Neil section of my record collection.
With his latest offering following on from – and sounding worryingly close in style to – 2019’s
decidedly meh Colorado, I had no great expectations of Neil and the Horse’s Barn.
Having bunged it on the car CD to accompany me on and my dog on a lengthy
drive to the vets the other day, I was pleasantly surprised. This is probably the best collection of songs he’s done since Psychedelic Pill and maybe even Prairie Wind.
For most Rusties, the real test of a latter day Neil album is whether or not any of the tracks
would justify their inclusion in one of his -thankfully still coruscating live sets.
Happily, there are several rockier tracks here – most notably Heading West and Today’s People that would not be out of place if they were on Live Rust. Elsewhere, there are some typically delightful ballads Tumblin’ Through the Years and Don’t Forget Love whose delicacy is perfectly suited to NY’s increasingly fragile vocals. Sounding like an OTB outtake, the eight-minute Welcome Home is every bit as good. A few sketchy, barely there songs like Shape of You aside, this is a pretty damn good album for someone who’s halfway through his eighth decade.
Yes, I’d pretty much written him off too, but first couple of listens sound great. A ‘barnstorming’ record, OK? Encouraging as well to see the wonderful Nils Lofgren contributing to the band.
I’m not that familiar with Neil Young (I like CSNY, Harvest and Harvest Moon and that’s about it) so I’m not really qualified to comment. But I really sympathise with and am fascinated by this idea about when a fan draws the line and stops buying an artist’s work.
My first experience of this was when I got into Yes in the late eighties, early nineties, and as a new keen fan I soldiered on, purchasing the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album as well as that Reunion album they did, before realising I was kidding myself. Pink Floyd as well, I struggled to make myself like The Division Bell but had to come clean to my own conscience and admit it wasn’t the same Floyd any more. It’s a sad thing!
My Neil journey started with Ragged Glory in 1990. There followed a (usually, eighties excepted) joyful period when I bought his entire back catalogue and (occasionally) joyful period when I bought every new album (even all the live ones, even Greendale…) until Living With War in 2006. I then woke up to the fact that I’d only listened to most of the recent one’s just the once at best and had a second child and that my money was probably best spent elsewhere… I’m sure I’ve missed out on plenty of decent songs since but I’m quite happy with my best of Neil Spotify list as it stands. Maybe one day.
My judge of a good Neil Young record with crazy horse is whether any of the songs go past 10 minutes
Anything on there that fits the bill?
Do 10+ minute songs make it a good record or a bad record? I feel we must be told.
I think the longest is 8+ minutes but there are several round the 3 minute mark.
The brevity of some of the songs is what makes this release really good for me.
Better than Colorado and Psychedelic Pill and there are a couple of songs that would not have been out of place on Harvest.
Oh over 10 minutes definitely good
Depends on the quality of the song actually. Neil likes to write these big epics that sometimes hit the mark (Cortez, Hurricane etc), and on a lot of other occasions don’t (Shots, No Hidden Path etc)
Listening to it now. So so, bit too much tuneless mouth organ so far… it’s not terrible though
My coursin sent me a Spotify link for the album. Didn’t get far. Neil’s lyrics these days are so half assed and clearly made up on the spot during some tedious jamming. I am not going to be fooled again
@Dai
One needs to have realistic expectations of a 75 year old, D
yes, but Van (occasionally) ,Macca, Bob, Bruce (not quite there yet), all do better.
Very little jamming on thos album @dai. Lofgren stars for me.
Will give it another go
I`m listening to `Barn` for the first time right now. It is definitely IMHO one of Shakey`s better albums with songs that could fit on several of his classic albums from `Harvest` to `Ragged Glory`. Others probably feel different but that`s their issue.
With regard to @Jaygee`s comments on when we stop buying some of the musicians new releases, I feel I may have bought my last Van album, this is because I no longer feel he has anything of quality to offer. This is a very dicey decision I feel but in Van`s case I feel I am correct. However who`d have thought His Bobness would release any more quality albums after `Under the Red Sky`.
I`ve been a bit more drastic when I`ve tired of an artists latest additions to their discography. In the case of Bowie, Richard Thompson, Rolling Stones to name a few I`ve got rid of ALL their albums and I don`t regret it. I doubt that will ever happen with my Neil Young, Bob Dylan collections. Too many great albums and great songs even on the lesser albums.
You got rid of all the albums by certain artists because you didn’t like their latest release? Bizarre.
And there is some great stuff on Van’s last album (admittedly some dross too)
Yes there is. A damn fine album is judicially therein.
I should have added that I came to the realisation that those artists music no longer meant anything to me, having not played their music for many years. Is it OK for me to have a personal opinion @dai?
I’m amazed by the positive reaction to this album, both in the press reviews I have read and on here. I have most Neil Young releases from his debut all the way to Psychedelic Pill, plus all the performance series, so consider myself to be one of Shakey’s biggest fans. The slew of albums since PP have been almost uniformly awful; crass unimaginative lyrics coupled with half-hearted meandering tunes. To my ears Barn just continues that trend. With the sole exception of Welcome Back there isn’t a single song here that possesses any spark of magic. Neil might still be a force to reckon with when he straps on Old Black and knocks out one of the classics live, but in the studio he is a busted flush. I don’t say this lightly – I’ve listened to Barn at least 6 times, and just cannot see anything to get excited about.
I also consider myself to be a Neil Young fan having grown up with his music and buying every album when it was released. I am also a realist, Shakey’s glory days are long gone but I consider myself lucky in finding a few tunes to love on every album he’s released in the past 25 years. The only exception being ‘Fork In The Road’, some of the albums dissed above I like quite a lot, different strokes for different folks. Ther are those on this forum who consider for example, Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ to be a masterpiece, I consider it to be overrated drivel. Like I said, different……..
I can take or leave dear ol’ Neil these days but BARN is bloody great. Nils Lofgren seems to push his guitar playing. He sounds fragile but then he’s always sounded fragile.
Word. Shakey sounded about a thousand years old on Broken Arrow.
I respect the right of Shakey, Macca, Van, Dylan, etc to keep making and releasing new records.
I hope they respect my right not to listen to them. My loss, possibly, but I’m prepared to take the risk.
I doubt if they give a toad’s toss whether or not you listen to their music Steve.
Charriddee staples – not to be confused with Mavis Staples, chuckle, chuckle, who ironically isn’t a charriddee staple – so they’re actually £1 a pop about a year after release – or should that be lack of “pop” – hey, I’m full of it tonight!
That said, life is far too short. It would be like buying an Arsenal season ticket. I mean, you could do, but why would you?
I’d think nothing of paying over the odds for one Ace/Bear Family compilation, (£15, say) but the idea of obtaining the last 40 years of (for example) Van Morrison’s back catalogue for the same price (which I could easily have done several times over – the extended editions) fills me with absolute horror.
I’m sure even he’d agree… “Van, would you like us to play Little Richard, Larry Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis at your wake, or one of your recent lame efforts?”
He’d get out of his grave and head-butt you if you went for the former.
Didn’t have time… I’m not a 100 wpm typist… and I’m still coming to terms with the cricket!
Latter… he’d get out of his grave and head-butt you if you went for the “latter.”
Absolutely, Baron! I am a fair-weather listener by AW standards, and we are a niche subset of the general public.
They must be highly-driven/thick-skinned/pig-headed/bored/unqualified for anything else/have poor pension arrangements, to keep churning it out.
I can only think they have a contract which states in the small print that “the label must release whatever the artist delivers”.
I doubt anyone at BMG actually said “Van, what the public wants is a triple album of anti-vax/lockdown whining – record that and we’ll clean up”.
When I reach retirement age, I very much doubt the world will come calling for me to mangle their component databases. And who can blame them?
I kept buying Neil Young albums for years but the most recent one I ever play is Harvest Moon from, what, 1992? So that’s 30 years old now. Crikey.
Similarly, I loved New Order up to 1993, and have listened to everything released since then. Mostly only once…
Van’s is not a triple album about “anti vax/lockdown whining”
Nor are any of the tunes from it Ive heard especially infectious