RATINGS: A = must own B = buy it C= average D = yawn F = puke
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill
Reprise
www.neilyoung.com
Rating: A
This one makes up for the terrible Americana based acoustic album Neil Young & Crazy Horse released earlier in 2012. For all of the weaknesses and silliness of that album, Psychedelic Pill is pure bliss.
The album opens with the nearly half hour long "Driftin' Back." This tune starts out acoustic and when Crazy Horse kick in the song skyrockets into a truly epic track. Sure, its filled with Young's lyrics of looking back and seeing how the world kinda sucks now, and there are what feel like hours of totally unabashed and self indulgent guitar solos, but so what! It is over 27 minutes of the best that the Young/Crazy Horse collaboration represents.
The entire album just keeps going and going. Two discs with only nine songs means lots of Neil Young's god-awful yet sound so good electric guitar solos. Young plunks, squeaks, squeals and scrapes the strings ad nauseum. His lyrics are either heartfelt, angry, discouraged or thoughtful. Whatever the mood and emotion of the song, Young captures the essence and presents it to the listener in the awful squeaky voice that, like his soling, should not sound good but does.
At the end of the day, Psychedelic Pill is a masterpiece and one of the best albums of 2012. From "Ramada Inn" to "Walk Like a Giant" one listen to this acoustic/electric mix of jamming and you will be saying, "I want some of what he's taking."
By Jeb Wright
