Neil Young 2000 onwards

[CRAZY-HORSE]

NEIL YOUNG "a letter home" cd, 2014.....#12 US...#17 CAN...#17 UK...#46 AU

Neil's thirty-third solo album(not counting soundtracks,CSNY,Buffalo Springfield,Stills-Young Band,live and compilations)....
and incidently, his fifth studio set in five years....
and too be honest the music world could have done with not having the last three plus this one....
ok,
so Neil was down in Nashville and he popped into Jack White's Third Man Records recording studio and White had one of those
old personal recording booths which he refurbished and set up in the front room of the studio....
while Neil was in there a kid was in the booth recording a cover o one of Neil's songs, either "heart of gold" or "old man" from memory...
when the kid was finished Neil stuck his head in the booth and told him it was cool, the kid dint recognise him....LOL,
so Young came up with the idea to literally record a whole album in the booth, the songs would be old country and folky tunes that he loved
through various stages of his career...
the problem with these booths from the 1940s/50s is that the sound quality was not great and the sound would and in or out often for no reason...
but Young being Young got it in his head to do it and so he did.....
the result is a terrible sounding album of fade ins/fade outs, poor quality sound with tinny little bass, thus no depth at all....
I believe that had the songs have been recorded in a proper studio with a little bit of production and polish this may have been an okay sounding album,
as it is we have what is arguably one of the worst sounding albums of the digital age, that said though, I can sort of see where Young was coming from.
it was his way of saying a big 'f##k you' to the compressed sounds you get from iTunes and ipod downloads, it was also his way of taking music back to the basics
and stripped down, but like I said, there are better ways to do it, but I guess, when you do it on a whim (which is really what it was) then you cant expect results!
theres not many clips available for this one...and I really don't wonder why...LOL

I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

worst track: girl from the north country
best track: crazy

tracks:

1...a letter home - intro *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAiSN4uh...1NTg92CEd2 audio
2...changes *
3...girl from the north country *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f5uwwcO...HLfXofKO8P video
4...needle to death *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H47jI6xanA video
5...early morning rain **
6...crazy **
7...reason to believe *
8...on the road again *
9...I you could read my mind **
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ya7YrSz1c audio
10.since I met you baby *
11.my hometown *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS5SMdn3...HLfXofKO8P video
12.i wonder if I care as much *

3s=0
2s=3
1s=9

rating: 1.2