Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II

RE*AC*TOR

Initial Impressions:

1. Beautiful Bluebird - good song, not hugely meaningful, but nice in a similar way to some of the more throwaway songs on After The Goldrush (Till the morning comes, Cripple Creek Ferry etc.) Was going to be on Old Ways (an album I quite like by the way).
2. Boxcar - great song, ok version. Unreleased song from Times Square album. To be honest the I've heard better versions from live performances, but its nice to have it officially released.
3. Ordinary People - Would make an all time Neil Young "best of" album. Almost twenty minutes long, was also going to be on his unreleased Times Square album - an album that morhped into Freedom.
4. Shining Light - The first truly "new" song on the album, and amazingly there isn't a jarring dip in quality.
5. The Believer - don't like this at all, sounds like it should be on Are You Passionate.
6. Spirit Road - Musically good, lyrically crap.
7. Dirty Old Man - That's more like it. Somewhere between Welfare Mothers and Piece of Crap. Haven't really heard anything like this since the relatively mediocre Broken Arrow album.
8. Ever After - back to Old Ways type music, only with clawingly awful sentimental lyrics.
9. No Hidden Path - long guitar solos. Thankfully sparse lyrics, cause they aren't great.
10. The Way - ah the old Neil Young staple of using children's choir as backup. Neither as surreal as when he used it on Violent Side on Landing on water, nor as schmalzy as whenever he last did it (when god made me? - actualyl no that was an adult choir). This is a very odd way to end this album. A little unnerving.

A mixed bag altogether. Aside from Greendale, which i thought was great, you could take his last few albums, Are You Passionate, Living With War, Prairie Wind and Chrome Dreams II and assemble one great album from the best of that lot. Living Passionately with Prairie Dreams we'll call it.

1. Goin' Home (from Are You Passionate)
2. Standing In the Light of Love (not from Are You Passionate - was played in the preceding Eurotour - should have made the album)
3. After The Garden (Living With War)
4. No Wonder (Prairie Wind)
5. This Old Guitar (Prairie Wind)
6. He Was the King (Prairie Wind)
7. Beautiful Bluebird (Chrome Dreams II)
8. Boxcar (Chrome Dreams II)
9. Ordinary People (Chrome Dreams II)

I have to say, looking back over those albums, Prairie Wind and Chrome Dreams II are substantially better than the other two.

John

I just had my second listen through of the album there, some excellent tracks and some meh tracks. Overall I think it's a decent album, far from his worst even if it isn't the best ever. Definite highlight is "Ordinary People", even with the rather 80s saxophone solos. The guitar licks in it are ****ing gorgeous though.

I have to say, looking back over those albums, Prairie Wind and Chrome Dreams II are substantially better than the other two.

I really like Prairie Wind, I think it's a very strong album. Only one or two duff tracks on it. That and Greendale are the best of his from this decade.

RE*AC*TOR

John wrote:

I really like Prairie Wind, I think it's a very strong album. Only one or two duff tracks on it. That and Greendale are the best of his from this decade.

I think Greendale ranks with his best from any decade. Its quite unique among Neil Young albums in its conception. Are You Passionate and Living With War though, I probably would rank as his worst albums. Thinking of all his (solo) albums, I can't think of any I'd prefer to listen to less. Obviously they are better than the last two CSNY albums, but I think I could create an album of dishwasher noises that would better them.

Even the much maligned Everybody's Rockin is a better listen, if only for the fantastic "Wonderin". When Neil came out of his 80s "slump" with Freedom, Harvest Moon, Mirrorball, and Sleeps With Angels, a lot of commentary looked back in a combination of bemusement and disgust at his Geffen output (Trans, Landing on Water, Everybody's Rockin, Life), and to a certain extent This Notes for You, which was actually back with Reprise. Those albums look like a creative patch now compared to some of his current, mundane output.

Plus there were the music videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOVkzZn48vo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwoCDE3TeQA

This concert would have been amazing to be at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0pubgjW3yw

deaddonkey

i'll get it soon just because buying neil young albums is kinda a habit of mine.
however i don't think he's been on top form recently
prairie wind did nothing for me
greendale was good
silver and gold is the best thing he's done in a long time i reckon.

deaddonkey

ooops

but yeah

this note's for you is a dreadful album
everybody's rockin was fun, but not a good album

i have zuma but haven't ever bothered to listen to it yet.

deaddonkey

does anyone know what's the story with time fades away?
where can one obtain a copy? there's some on ebay but they're all 40+ pounds.

loyatemu

deaddonkey wrote: »

does anyone know what's the story with time fades away?
where can one obtain a copy? there's some on ebay but they're all 40+ pounds.

yeah - he's recently been remastering and releasing old live shows - has nobody pointed out to him that he still has original albums that haven't got a CD release?

RE*AC*TOR

He doesn't like Time Fades Away, that's why he hasn't released it.

As for obtaining it, it can be found on vinyl in secondhand record stores, or ebay. Whatever you do though don't spend £40 pounds on ebay on a cd - this is just a bootleg, an illegal copy. So you'd be giving money to some jerk with a cd copier, which is worse than for example going out and downloading the album from bittorrent or emule (which is also illegal - so don't do that).

I have it on vinyl.

John

Most vinyl copies I've seen have been fairly reasonable in price. I keep meaning to track a copy down. Although, it wouldn't surprise me if he did include it in one of the planned Archive box sets just for completion's sake.