More new Neil Young

[snuffbox 0]

This is from jambase.com

 

As Harp Magazine reports today Neil Young has announced a new album... and it's already finished!

The news that Neil Young has a complete album in the bag shocked all of us at JamBase. On the heels of his very successful 2005 release, Prairie Wind and with his award-winning documentary Neil Young: Heart of Gold in theatres now, no one saw this coming.

 

Filmmaker Jonathan Demme (who filmed Neil Young: Heart of Gold) recently sent an email stating; "Neil just finished writing and recording – with no warning – a new album called Life in War. It all happened in three days."

 

Young has long worked under the "strike while the iron is hot" mentality, often working in creative spurts and never forcing it. Well, it seems the iron must have been burning bright for him to create a complete album in three days!

 

As Katherine Silkaitis at Harp reported, Demme went on to say, "It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq... Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon."

 

Details are sketchy at best, but the featured song, "Impeach the President" contains Bush's voice accompanied by a choir chanting "flip/flop."

 

---

 

I wonder is the 'mindblowing electric assault' means that Crazyhorse will be backing this shit up. Either way, the Man has been busy lately. I eagerly look forward to this. And, it should be noted that 'Heart of Gold' is an amazing concert film.

[godthedog 0]

eh...i think 'heart of gold' was subpar material getting the godlike film treatment. there was nothing wrong with the filming, the Nashville atmosphere was captured perfectly (bringing back some memories), and Young still has an unbelievable amount of energy...but the songs were just kinda boring. if you're gonna do a new-album-as-concert-film, THAT is not the album to make a concert film on.

 

As Katherine Silkaitis at Harp reported, Demme went on to say, "It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq... Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon."

 

Details are sketchy at best, but the featured song, "Impeach the President" contains Bush's voice accompanied by a choir chanting "flip/flop."

this just sounds like a bad idea. directly political hip-hop music=pointed and good. directly political rock music=self-indulgent and preachy.

[Red Baron 0]

Well at least its motherfucking Neil Young writing about anti-war. At least he'll know how to write a good protest song, and bands like Green Day and all those "Bush hater" bands should take a page on how to write anti-war songs.

[snuffbox 0]

Neil Young earned his political music credentials with 'Ohio' (where he directly attacked the Nixon administration for 4 college students being shot to death, and others wounded, by the National Guard) and 'Rockin in the Free World'.

[Annabelle 0]

Neil Young earned his political music credentials with 'Ohio' (where he directly attacked the Nixon administration for 4 college students being shot to death, and others wounded, by the National Guard) and 'Rockin in the Free World'.

 

are you trying to treat us like idiots? everyone knows this

[Annabelle 0]

Neil Young earned his political music credentials with 'Ohio' (where he directly attacked the Nixon administration for 4 college students being shot to death, and others wounded, by the National Guard) and 'Rockin in the Free World'.

 

are you trying to treat us like idiots? everyone knows this

[Annabelle 0]

it needed to be said twice

[snuffbox 0]

godthedog apparently didnt.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

There's a big-difference-I mean, I don't even know if I can express how big it is--between "Ohio" and having a 100-piece choir shout "flip flop" over a sample of the president talking.

[godthedog 0]

^bingo. just because young made it work before doesn't mean it isn't still hard as fuck to pull off a GOOD political song; and 'prairie wind' certainly didn't indicate that he's still capable of pulling off something he pulled off a few decades ago.

 

in order to not make a political song sound preachy and self-indulgent, you have to be REALLY on point with the lyrics, so it sounds like you're making a solid point and not just emoting. none of the lyrics in 'prairie wind' are very on point or literate, especially the lyrics where he was trying to be political. so i'm not holding my breath, especially if he did the whole thing in 3 days in a fit of rage.

[snuffbox 0]

Neil Young doesnt need time to make good songs..."Cowgirl in the Sand', "Down by the River', and 'Cinnamon Girl' were all written in one afternoon with a fever.

 

Picking nits - Those werent politcal songs tho...

[Annabelle 0]

Neil Young doesnt need time to make good songs..."Cowgirl in the Sand', "Down by the River', and 'Cinnamon Girl' were all written in one afternoon with a fever.

 

Picking nits - Those werent politcal songs tho...

 

that was 35 years ago. he can't do it now. its a time & place. it'll be a contrived mess, like most "political" statements in music today. its becomes a cliche. i'll be shocked if i am wrong, but i highly doubt it. dylan stays away from writing political songs now for a reason. they don't work in this day & age.

[bob_barron 0]

I thought of Heart of Gold was a great film. A little slow at times, but it was great seeing Neil on stage again.

[Guest Sylvan Grenier]

There's a big-difference-I mean, I don't even know if I can express how big it is--between "Ohio" and having a 100-piece choir shout "flip flop" over a sample of the president talking.

That's more Sufjan Stevens than Neil Young. For shame, Neil

[snuffbox 0]

I wonder if this is the first time people have complained about Neil Young doing something 'different'...

[Guest Sylvan Grenier]

I'm sure it's not the first time at all, but

the featured song, "Impeach the President" contains Bush's voice accompanied by a choir chanting "flip/flop."

does not exactly promise a quality piece of work.

[Annabelle 0]

I wonder if this is the first time people have complained about Neil Young doing something 'different'...

 

your fanboyism blinds you.

 

and by the way, people stopped caring about anything modern from neil young a long time ago. not even taglines that attempt to compare his modern albums to his previous classics have ignited much of an interest in the man. well, people care about what he DID not what he's doing.

[snuffbox 0]

"Why doesnt Neil Young just make songs like 'Heart of Gold' and 'My My Hey Hey'? This new stuff is dumb"

[Annabelle 0]

"Why doesnt Neil Young just make songs like 'Heart of Gold' and 'My My Hey Hey'? This new stuff is dumb"

 

if i cared enough about the man i'm sure i'd say that. and besides, just reading the general promotion articles for the prairie wind, he was being marketed on the basis of those songs. its his record company that facilitates that thought process.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I'm really puzzled by this insistence on the relevance of Neil Young as contemporary artist. He's in fine company; Paul McCartney hasn't made good music in forever. Even Bob Dylan's last few albums are merely eh. Mediocre new music doesn't denigrate their past successes, so why force yourself to like it, gritting your teeth all the while?

[Annabelle 0]

at least dylan doesn't rely on boring bush bashing cliches. or trying to make blonde on blonde pt. 3. i think its all that that makes neil seem so desperate at this time. of course, i am probably wrong. but generally stating, it comes across quite silly.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading this thread and then bam, Edwin posted it.

[godthedog 0]

I'm really puzzled by this insistence on the relevance of Neil Young as contemporary artist. He's in fine company; Paul McCartney hasn't made good music in forever. Even Bob Dylan's last few albums are merely eh. Mediocre new music doesn't denigrate their past successes, so why force yourself to like it, gritting your teeth all the while?

i was about to say "'time out of mind' was good, dammit," but then i realized it came out nine years ago, which would still mean that dylan hasn't done anything good in nine years.

 

all said & done, young is probably rock's coolest elder statesman at the moment. definitely the only one with the fire to pull off a concert film without embarrassing himself.

 

at least dylan doesn't rely on boring bush bashing cliches. or trying to make blonde on blonde pt. 3. i think its all that that makes neil seem so desperate at this time.

misguided probably, but not desperate. young doesn't exactly have a track record of wanting a lot of attention or sales.

[spiny norman 0]

i was about to say "'time out of mind' was good, dammit," but then i realized it came out nine years ago, which would still mean that dylan hasn't done anything good in nine years.

 

I think "Love and Theft" was Time Out of Mind's equal. Which was five years ago, albeit, but they're his two most recent studio albums (that I know of).

 

all said & done, young is probably rock's coolest elder statesman at the moment.

 

How about Springsteen? His tours are still selling huge and both The Rising and Devils & Dust reached #1 in both the US and UK album charts. That's pretty impressive for a guy who released his first album almost 35 years ago.

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

"More new Neil Young"

 

 

 

 

Yay.

[... 0]

I seem to remember one of the reviews of "Are You Passionate?" went along the lines of "it's not a Neil Young album unless you pick it up and think 'dear god, what's he done this time?'"

 

We're hearing about ONE SONG. For all we know, he could scrap the whole session like he's done before and start again with something else in six months. Count me in as a fanboy if you will, but I'm familiar with what's he's been up to from '68 to now and trust me...

 

 

...how bad could it be?

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading this thread and then bam, Edwin posted it.

Lately, I've only been posting while drunk. Like now, for instance. I'm pretty sure I wasn't drunk when I posted this—too early in the day, even by my standards!—so I've no excuse for the poor syntax. Sorry.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

And COOS, that's a weak argument. It can always be shitty. Are you going to tell me Are You Passionate? and Praire Wind are anything other than some old fart resting on his laurels?

[... 0]

Mediocre? Yes. Actively terrible to the point of unlistenable? No. It's the difference between eating wheat puffs straight up and chowing down on a big bowl of rusty staples. If you want to come right down to it, there's been a lot of mediocre stuff since he took that layoff after Broken Arrow (Greendale is hit and miss, but the effort is there). Silver and Gold is the beta version of Prairie Wind. Road Rock is totally disposable. But you know what? The same thing can be said of American Stars 'n' Bars, Comes A Time, Hawks and Doves, and Re-Ac-Tor, and that was the time period that produced Rust Never Sleeps.

 

Then came Trans, which I consider criminally underrated and unfairly slagged, especially in contrast to the rest of the Geffen output, but that's another story.

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

Neil Young can do no wrong.

 

Dude can join Wu-Tang and I'd still bump his shit.