, , , —

Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill


There’s a tendency to romanticize the artists who make a few great albums, or even just one perfect release, and then disappear. They never have a chance to release a bad album, and leave behind approachable and easily digestible discographies. So what do we make of Neil Young’s cluttered career? Young’s been steadily releasing albums in his many different incarnations since the 60’s, which allows for many classics and a handful of missteps. Psychedelic Pill, recorded with Crazy Horse and his first album containing original material this year, is a heavy slab of furious guitar rock. He may be a dinosaur, but he’s not a boring one. 

Seeping through the grungy amplifier worship of Psychedelic Pill is cynicism. Young avoids the complacency that infiltrates new material by his peers Dylan and McCartney and replaces it with anger. First song “Driftin’ Back” is an almost half-hour trek through guitar snarl and barely connected missives. There’s a thread between the murderous narrator of On The Beach’s  “Revolution Blues” and the one on “Driftin’ Back.” Instead of “famous stars” this enemy is an unnamed “big tech giant” filtering his music into bite-less computer files and Picasso’s art into “wallpaper.” Young is content to lay his complaints and passions bare, instead of hiding behind metaphor. It’s that lack of tact that gives his lyrics weight, trading in cleverness for blunt thoughts and desires. 

The best tracks on  Psychedelic Pill are when Crazy Horse are given time to stretch out. “Ramada Inn,” clocking in at little over fifteen-minutes, is the heart of the album. It’s Young’s softest vocal take which revolves and turns on a repeated lyric, “She loves him so/she does what she has to.” As he frequently does on the album, when his vocals drop out in favor of sludgy guitar, Young lets his guitar mirror his just past singing lines. If “Driftin’ Back” contains the righteous vengefulness of “Revolution Blues,” then “Ramada Inn” is Pill's “Cortez The Killer.” It’s searching and wondrous, yet morbid beneath it’s soaring grungy exterior. The other monster track, the appropriately titled “Walk Like A Giant,” is a eulogy for an idealistic baby-boomer generation. Crazy Horse is at it’s most stormy, stomping around a mindless whistling that gets doomier as the song moves along. Young sounds strained as he sings, “think about how close we came." 

There are misses on  Psychedelic Pill, like the title track’s Guitar Center flanger or the old man honky-tonk of “Twisted Pill” which has the unfortunate chorus of “if I ever get home/let the good times roll.” But on an hour and half(!) hour album, these mistakes get buried quickly in favor of greater and better-executed ideas. That Young is still making sonically adventurous albums at his age is amazing enough, that he avoids the pitfalls of preaching to an already converted fan base keeps his releases interesting. 

 Grade: B


0 comments

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)