stip wrote:this is a serious question that I don't know the answer to. When was the last time neil young released a record that was totally unexpected and challenged your perception of what Neil young is. And that challenged a neutral party's conception of what Neil Young is.
probably that psychedelic jam album he made last year
or when he went crazy and wanted to impeach the president
It was. The point with pushing yourself isn't to completely redefine, but that record took Neil into some pretty wild places that were noticeably outside of his previous work. Parts of the album cut of Walk With Me are almost Foxymophandlemama-ish.
I just wonder how much of Neil Young is mythology
This seems like a really weird thing to speculate about an artist you admit to not knowing.
stip wrote:this is a serious question that I don't know the answer to. When was the last time neil young released a record that was totally unexpected and challenged your perception of what Neil young is. And that challenged a neutral party's conception of what Neil Young is.
probably that psychedelic jam album he made last year
or when he went crazy and wanted to impeach the president
That let's impeach the president record is fantastic, but is it surprising for Neil Young, musically? I would call Backspacer a similar experiment for PJ; it's not a good one in comparison, but the leap it takes is about as long. PJ had never sounded like that before.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:its no secret that i am a big fan of this album, but i will say that i dont know what they were going for with the way they tracked it. im sure it was talked about while i was still waiting to hear the album, but im not sure if they were trying to say somehting with the order of the tracks or if they just threw them on there randomly
I personally don't have a problem with the order of songs, Doc. But to each his/her own.
its nothing terrible, but mainly sirens and LB seem out of place kinda, im not sure where i would put them, but id do somehting different.
I think there's also a substantial difference between "investigating slightly different and subtle textural shifts within your established sound, every four years or so," and "investigating slightly different and subtle textural shifts within your sound every 12-18 months." Minutia requires company in a way big statements do not.
so a record that you have to go back 20 plus years for.
I guess Le Noise is far more recent.
I don't know either of these albums, though. I just wonder how much of Neil Young is mythology
It's twenty years ago, but it's also twenty years into his career. And years ten through twenty was when he pushed his unpredictability to cartoonish degrees. The twenty years since then have seen him constantly in motion though , and in any other artist's catalog would seem like a really stylisitically insane period. But I'd imagine after Trans/Everybody's Rockin'/This Note's For You/etc., there's not much you can do to really stun your listeners.
Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:its no secret that i am a big fan of this album, but i will say that i dont know what they were going for with the way they tracked it. im sure it was talked about while i was still waiting to hear the album, but im not sure if they were trying to say somehting with the order of the tracks or if they just threw them on there randomly
I personally don't have a problem with the order of songs, Doc. But to each his/her own.
its nothing terrible, but mainly sirens and LB seem out of place kinda, im not sure where i would put them, but id do somehting different.
Give 'em the big ol' switcheroony.
RisingTides wrote:There is more kindness on the internet than we would care to admit to ourselves. Sometimes we are so afraid of falling victim to a ruse, we miss out on actual opportunities.
Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:its no secret that i am a big fan of this album, but i will say that i dont know what they were going for with the way they tracked it. im sure it was talked about while i was still waiting to hear the album, but im not sure if they were trying to say somehting with the order of the tracks or if they just threw them on there randomly
I personally don't have a problem with the order of songs, Doc. But to each his/her own.
its nothing terrible, but mainly sirens and LB seem out of place kinda, im not sure where i would put them, but id do somehting different.
I like having LB be after Sirens. You need to lighten the mood after an emotional track like Sirens.
@SkitchP wrote:While not a terrible song Sleeping By Myself feels like a totally unneeded inclusion on the album. This might have actually have been a fun B-Side if they still did that.
stip wrote:well in fairness, apparently his most recent album has songs that are like 20 minutes long.
That's something, i guess.
but that's not unexpected at all from him
ahh, touche
although I can see how that would be a shock to someone who would only know the Harvest part of Neil Young, I don't know if that would be a bigger shock than someone going Ten -> BS or LB
cutuphalfdead wrote:so glad i don't see signatures
It was. The point with pushing yourself isn't to completely redefine, but that record took Neil into some pretty wild places that were noticeably outside of his previous work. Parts of the album cut of Walk With Me are almost Foxymophandlemama-ish.
I just wonder how much of Neil Young is mythology
This seems like a really weird thing to speculate about an artist you admit to not knowing.
true believers usually don't see their mythology as mythology. I was wondering if this was the case. I have only heard scattered songs here and there, but for someone credited for always following his muse no matter where it leads, they all sounded of a piece to me. But maybe I just get fed the introductory material.
We also tend to be far more respectful of our musical heroes in the other bands threads than we do pearl jam. I know I could subject REM or Tom Waits or Mark Lanegan or another one of my sacred cows to the kind of nitpicky micro criticisms (and the macro ones) that we do here (myself included), but we don't. We tend to focus on what we love and ignore what we don't. And so the way someone like Neil Young gets used here could reflect an idealized Neil Young more than the reality.
