9.30.2005
After the gold rush
If Neil Young had died from the aneurysm he was diagnosed with earlier this year, critics would be hailing his latest CD, Prairie Wind, as a wonderful record that perfectly capped an enigmatic career. He didn't however, and so they're left with an interesting hook for reviews and features about yet another middling album. The disc has a few memorable moments, but like much of his work in the past decade, it is disappointing, containing neither the strong melodies nor homespun wordplay that elevates the best of his work. Instead we get odd namechecks of Chris Rock, the umpteenth song about Elvis being "the King" and a tune about Young's guitar.
True to form, the disc is Young's latest in the quiet/folk vein, following the more raucous, Crazy Horse-driven Greendale. Like Young's last disc of this ilk, 2000's Silver and Gold, the songs just aren't there. The players -- including longtime sidemen Ben Keith and Spooner Oldham -- offer sympathetic accompaniment, but all the subtly engaging backing in the world can't rescue songs without hooks. Many reviews cite it as the best thing Young has done in the last 10 years, and while that may be the case, that isn't necessarily a compliment; the bar isn't set very high.
In a long interview in the latest Time magazine, Young talks about the aneurysm, the fact that the disc was recorded in the week between the diagnosis and surgery, and about his mercurial career. He says he did think about the fact that the disc might be his last: "I was thinking about things like that, and it's kind of too bad that people know about this, because it's like, 'The only way he could make a good album is if he had an aneurysm,' or something. I feel a little funny about it, because I know I would have made an album anyway."
That last comment is telling, and would likely have been accurate if he had said he would have made this album anyway. That's the beauty and curse of Young -- he does what he wants when he wants. That path has led to some stunningly good music and some shockingly bad. Prairie Wind is neither, but it is the latest in a long string of discs that just seem uninspired. That's surprising given the situation from which this sprung. If this doesn't stir Young enough to pry him from this creative funk, what will?
True to form, the disc is Young's latest in the quiet/folk vein, following the more raucous, Crazy Horse-driven Greendale. Like Young's last disc of this ilk, 2000's Silver and Gold, the songs just aren't there. The players -- including longtime sidemen Ben Keith and Spooner Oldham -- offer sympathetic accompaniment, but all the subtly engaging backing in the world can't rescue songs without hooks. Many reviews cite it as the best thing Young has done in the last 10 years, and while that may be the case, that isn't necessarily a compliment; the bar isn't set very high.
In a long interview in the latest Time magazine, Young talks about the aneurysm, the fact that the disc was recorded in the week between the diagnosis and surgery, and about his mercurial career. He says he did think about the fact that the disc might be his last: "I was thinking about things like that, and it's kind of too bad that people know about this, because it's like, 'The only way he could make a good album is if he had an aneurysm,' or something. I feel a little funny about it, because I know I would have made an album anyway."
That last comment is telling, and would likely have been accurate if he had said he would have made this album anyway. That's the beauty and curse of Young -- he does what he wants when he wants. That path has led to some stunningly good music and some shockingly bad. Prairie Wind is neither, but it is the latest in a long string of discs that just seem uninspired. That's surprising given the situation from which this sprung. If this doesn't stir Young enough to pry him from this creative funk, what will?
