8.22.2005
Long after the gold rush
Neil Young's forthcoming disc, Prairie Wind, is conjuring thoughts of his 1972 masterpiece, Harvest. It's a country-themed disc that features Harvest vets Spooner Oldham and Ben Keith, and he even debuted some of the material at the historic Ryman Auditorium this weekend. I'll wait to hear it before I buy into the hype, thank you. He's still coasting on the accolades of his now decade-old comeback, and patience is wearing thin. After the back-to-back greatness of Freedom, Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon (OK, that's definitely the weakest link here) and Sleeps with Angels, his output hasn't been terribly inspiring. He has released a lot of average live material since, as well as four middling studio albums that range from the truly awful Are You Passionate? (With a nod to J.D. Considine, master of the shorttake review: About this? No. You clearly weren't either.) to the much better but still flawed Greendale.
Young seems to have set a pattern during that time, however, creating CD-DVD packages and/or live performance films for nearly each release along the way. Following on 1997's live film Year of the Horse will come a feature directed by Jonathan Demme filmed during this weekend's Ryman shows. In addition, the Prairie Wind set will feature a DVD that captures the entire recording process for the disc. As Young says on his web site: "The DVD shows us recording the whole record. Every note you hear, you see!" Gee, thanks. That will be interesting for about five minutes. Anyone who has ever spent any time in a recording studio can attest to the fact that it doesn't take long to be bored by the process, even if you're actually getting paid or making music. I'm all for artists pulling back the curtain, and Young is to be applauded for trying new things like the Greendale movie and all of his other oddball projects over the years. But no one comes to Neil for his filmmaking skills. They come to hear the music, and it would be nice if he would work as hard on writing and recording a batch of songs on par with his best work as he does in cooking up all of these bells and whistles. If he needs these things to keep up his own interest, he should take a moment to imagine what it must be like to be a fan.
Young seems to have set a pattern during that time, however, creating CD-DVD packages and/or live performance films for nearly each release along the way. Following on 1997's live film Year of the Horse will come a feature directed by Jonathan Demme filmed during this weekend's Ryman shows. In addition, the Prairie Wind set will feature a DVD that captures the entire recording process for the disc. As Young says on his web site: "The DVD shows us recording the whole record. Every note you hear, you see!" Gee, thanks. That will be interesting for about five minutes. Anyone who has ever spent any time in a recording studio can attest to the fact that it doesn't take long to be bored by the process, even if you're actually getting paid or making music. I'm all for artists pulling back the curtain, and Young is to be applauded for trying new things like the Greendale movie and all of his other oddball projects over the years. But no one comes to Neil for his filmmaking skills. They come to hear the music, and it would be nice if he would work as hard on writing and recording a batch of songs on par with his best work as he does in cooking up all of these bells and whistles. If he needs these things to keep up his own interest, he should take a moment to imagine what it must be like to be a fan.
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On the other hand, how many other people in the rock and roll era have accumulated such a backlist of truly great material as Neil Young? In many ways, even more impressive than Dylan. He probably deserves being cut some slack.
True, he does have an impressive back catalog, but I disagree that this gives him a pass in making half-hearted music today. If anything, that backlist ought to inspire him to keep up the quality. Odd explorations like Trans and Everybody's Dancing are one thing, half-baked songs in his now-predictible style are quite another.
I'm anxious to hear the new record. If the songs are indeed "half-baked," I'll concede you may be right that he's currently out of inspiration. As opposed to indulging in failed experiments, which he's done several times in the past.
It is my hope that he does rally and put out a good batch of songs. However, his last few have really been lackluster. The only thing that seemed to elevate Greendale above recent efforts was the experiment of telling a story throughout. As for the Dylan comparison, at least he seems to have been re-energized somehow. I don't recall the sequence of events, but his life-threatening illness came around the time of Time out of Mind. Perhaps Neil will be similarly moved by his own recent health troubles.
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