AMG'd.
Man, am I going soft? After weeks for 3s and 3.5s, suddenly I'm medal-happy.
I know of Neil Young. Duh. You know, that guy in CSN&Y when you add the Y; that guy Skynard doesn't like (or something); that guy that led my Dad, years ago, to say, about the (oppressively depressing) Bonnie Prince Billy album I See a Darkness "they sound too Neil Young". That latter association, along with this album's reputation as a morose, desolate work, lead me to expect something far different than I got.
That first track tells you all you need to know. The sloppy/precise playing, the ragged feel, the live feel, the immediate feel, the vocals overloading and fading out, so much that you can hear, viscerally, Young's movement towards and away from the mic. You feel like a band is playing, and that you are there, and that they are doing something special.
The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to that standard, but its the basic feel. You'll know in the first 4:42 if you're going to like the rest, I can tell you that. Its a bit dark at times, but the standard is different now. I'm a veteran of Bright Eyes, Why? and Xiu Xiu - I can handle songs about heroin overdose and the vacancy of fame.
As I've said, there's something live and immediate and singular about this album that make its reputation well-deserved. Young's voice often doesn't move me (though its better than Dylan's) and some of the slower, folksier numbers don't move me (Roll Another Number, say, is just too polished for my taste), but across the board, the album moves me. It has the crunchy, ramshackle heart that bands like Songs: Ohia strive for (see Albequerque), and that give it a grace and presence that I respect. It's not quuuiite my scene somehow, which leads me, if I'm being completely honest, to a slightly stingy and eventually to-be-regretted-as-too-low-I'm-sure, might-regret-it-already 4/5
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment