Neil Young's weakest album?

Everybody’s Rockin’ is not actually all that bad, but it’s barely longer than an EP and the cover art is terrible (cover art should be considered a factor, I’d say).

 

For me the weakest album seems to change over time. I used to cringe at his 80s albums, but now like (almost) all of them (still can't get into Everybody's Rockin'). Are you Passionate seems to catch a lot of flack, but that is one of the better albums in the aughts for me. Even CSNY American Dream has gradually revealed itself to be a very listenable album once you get past the trendy production style at the time. His collaboration with Promise of the Real I think helped give him a shot in the arm and his albums from this period seemed to have more vigor. I was able to attend one of his last concert performances in 2019 with POTR and it was the best NY concert I have seen.

 

The ones that I listened to and didn't feel like buying:

Trans
Everybody's Rockin'
Landing On Water
Life
Broken Arrow
Are You Passionate
Greendale
Living With War
Chrome Dreams II
Storytone
The Monsato Years
Earth
Peace Trail
The Visitor
Paradox
Colorado

I couldn't tell you which is the worst of those.

 

Out of those I would say Broken Arrow and Chrome Dreams 2 deserve another chance. The others can safely be overlooked although parts of Landing On Water and Life are rockin' quite hard.

 

I agree with DTK and would even go so far as to say Broken Arrow is essential. But otherwise that list is pretty spot on.

 

no 'a letter home"?

 

Too many but to be fair he released about 10 solid albums which put him in the upper group of musicians

 

In my case, "Re-ac-tor" was an album that grew on me with time. "T-Bone" is the most meh track, but once you get over it you can appreciate good songs like "Shots", "Rapid Transit" and "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze". The instrumentals are pretty great for a guitar-oriented album.

"Trans" also grows on you. I wouldn't say I consider it a good or great album, it's appreciable at least.

 

I listened to it once and quite enjoyed it! I must give it another spin.

 

This thread is still a thing?

 

a whole lot to talk about since 2000.

 

Anyone think that since Briggs died, Neil has needed someone to reign him in? Look at Colorado....did we really need 13 minutes of "She Showed me Love"? I get the capture the moment vibe, but some songs could use some edits, and it seems with Neil you get a half baked product anymore. I still think he makes good music, but diminished with no one to balance some of his ideas.

 

I couldn’t get through Colorado, it was just one big long bummer

 

On the two extreme song lengths which I recall from his discography (thinking Driftin Back and Ordinary People, both of which I rate very highly, but only need ten minutes of, given that whilst the song keeps going, it does not evolve particularly), I would agree.

However, I think keeping those songs that length was itself some kind of artistic statement by Neil.

 

Me too. I like it and most of Life too. Whereas Chrome Dreams II which I bought during lockdown is not for me. I'm also giving Old Ways more listens now than I did back in the eighties. Each to his own.

 

Ordinary People is an amazing song but yeah I agree, the rest of Chrome Dreams II is forgettable.

 

Can't understand why so many people seem to dislike Living With War, that's one of the strongest things he's ever put out and at a time when few major artists seemed to be saying what needed to be said about the geopolitical situation.

 

I remember liking it when it first came out, but I don't think the songs have aged well. The Let's Impeach song was laughingly bad.

 

It's a bit of a preachy album in places but song writing wise is very strong I think.

 

One above all.........Trans............he should never have even got close to ever writing that junk

 

Yes I was there! 86 tour Wow that was a wild show Neil was like they just let him out of a cage. He was really into it. One of my best top 5 shows ever.

 

Neil's way of recording is he tapes the run- through of the song when he's teaching the band the song! And thats the take that goes on the record it's a great way to record because you get the feel 100%... the downside is he releases almost everything! So he's bound to have some mediocre albums. It's like he dosent shake the tree to remove the bad apples we have to buy the whole tree .

 

Yes and no. As much as "She Showed Me Love" is overblown, it's really great for the first three or four minutes so I just fade it out after a while and move on to the songs I really dig on that record including all of side two. Neil Young has given us so much great music over the years, I think he can do anything he damn well pleases and I'm not going to gripe about it. That's why I don't see much validity in this thread. We're going to come here and have a thread where we disparage one of our greatest song writers/ musicians? I just don't see it.

(And I'm sorry, I don't mean this to sound like a personal attack. I respect your opinion. This is just how I feel about it.)

 

Both 86 and 87 tours were pretty wild. I’m hoping that we get more of this from the Archives.

I had the HBO Rusted Out Garage on cassette and really liked the Life songs. A lot. Then he somehow ruined them on Life the album.

 

Yeah life was so dissapointing they played long walk home on the radio a lot though Neil was in his digital recording stage then he went back to rough and ready a few years later I'll never forget that 86 tour though so much energy the while arena was rocking . He was a manic