Neil Young 2000 onwards

[CRAZY-HORSE]

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE "americana" 2012 #2 CAN, #4 US, #34 AU, #16 UK

Neil's thirty-second studio album(not counting CSNY,Stills/Young,Buffalo Springfield and movie soundtracks)....
as usual,just when fans thought The Horse would never reform, Young turns 180 degrees and reforms the guys once again....
this time round we see him recording a collection of of folk songs and protest songs dating back to the mid 1800s....
Young picked songs that he thought were relevant to the state of affairs of the US in the 2000s...
many folk songs have alternate verses when recorded by different people but on this occasion Young sticks to the earliest known original lyrics here...
now....
the pitfalls of this one are many(but that make it less enjoyable)....
little two or three minute songs have on more than occasion been blown out here up to five and six minutes to suit the grungy/garage band/jamming style of Crazy Horse which means there is a lot of repetition happening here...
they become less like folk songs with the sound of distortion and guitar crunches and more like throwaway/discarded demos or warm up songs from decades ago...
but overall, it is, good to hear the Horse once again, even if the album is more for novlety value and the self-indulgent force that is Neil Young....
probably not an album for anyone but a Crazy Horse fan(and i am one of those), but it is nice to hear him sing things like "wayfarin' stranger" and "this land is your land", but not to hear him sing "God save the queen"....
again, i do like most of the tracks here on offer, but unfortunately they get boring once the the long overblown repeatativeness creeps in,thus these ones do not score well for that reason!

I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

worst track: God save the Queen
best track: travel on

tracks:

1. oh,suzannah *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei2PVpSKkF4 audio
2. clementine **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqOrZP2EpNk video
3. tom dula *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zouila8_-F8 audio
4. gallows pole **
5. get a job *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv4JdauqfeY audio
6. travel on **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9eVH1t8ki8 audio
7. high flyin' bird **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkDUkVE0jI audio
8. Jesus' chariot(she'll be comin' round the mountain) **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NghGoIdv-E video
9. this land is your land **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-aGEqGwtI audio
10.wayfarin' stranger **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQHHfWDtU5g audio
11.God save the Queen *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-nPsrX05Rk audio

3s=0
2s=7
1s=4

rating: 1.6