Rating:  -
This is Neil's second best Crazy Horse album (next to "This is Nowhere"). It is a must own for any Neil fan. "Barstool Blues" is one of his greatest songs And of course, "Cortez" is music's most mesmerizing song.
Rating: -
Excellent, mellow, beautiful as only Mr. Young can do. I owned this album years ago. It was stolen when my home was burgled. So happy to have it again. It's worth buying again.
Rating:  -
A while back, Warner Brothers Japan re-released 12 Neil Young titles. The surprise was that remastered content appeared for the first time on most of them.
The titles & WB-Japan catalog numbers are:
Neil Young WPCR-75086
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere WPCR-75087
After The Gold Rush WPCR-75088
Harvest WPCR-75089
On The Beach WPCR-75090
Tonight's The Night WPCR-75091
Zuma WPCR-75092
Long May You Run WPCR-75093
American Stars n' Bars WPCR-75094
Comes A Time WPCR-75095
Rust Never Sleeps WPCR-75096
Live Rust WPCR-75097
I picked up most of these, A/B'd them, and found them to be superior to the domestics. However, having purchased the domestic 2002 remasters of "Beach" and "Stars n Bars", I declined the Japan versions of those two titles.
Unfortunately, while the Japan version is remastered, Live Rust is not restored to the original LP's running form, and remains still the bastardized version.
If you own the U.S. versions, and you're a NY fan, I would seriously consider replacing them with these.
Rating: -
More of a polished effort than the preceeding Tonight's the Night and On the Beach, but, paradoxically or not, a lesser album than either of these masterpieces. "Don't Cry No Tears" is a fine, upbeat opener, and is followed by the accomplished but inessential Crazy Horse workout "Danger Bird." "Lookin' for a Love" is a pop song of the sort that Young has written reletively few, but has an edgier side, "I hope I treat her kind, and don't mess with her mind/ when she starts to see the darker side of me" that belies its pretty, poppy surface. It's also a fine tune. The album's center is "Barstool Blues" an excellent song which demonstrates clearly why Young is considered the godfather of grunge. Thematically, "Barstool Blues" would nestle well into Tonight's the Night litany of strung-out drug songs, but with a slightly more produced sheen it here is fits perfectly, and, arranged as it is, seems to point to a way out of the bar and into the light of the street. "Stupid Girl" is a bit low, but contains more notable guitar pyrotechnics that presage the late 70's goldern age of Crazy Horse with albums like Rust Never Sleeps and Live Rust. Of course, the standout track is "Cortez the Killer," a pivotal song in Young's career, and one of his very greatest. While highly suspect as historical interpretation, the slow burn guitar buildup, Young's obvious sincerity, and the frenzied soloing combine to form a masterpiece of songwriting and musicianship.
Rating: -
Zuma is certainly one of the best Young/Crazy Horse studio recordings. "Don't Cry No Tears," is a great rock song, with lots of sting. "Cortez the Killer" contains some of Neil's best extended rifs, and the lyrics are among his best: poetic and political at the same time. This recording gets some of my most frequent IPOD replays, and I have most of Young's records on the hard drive.
|
