Saturday, August 30, 2008

676. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory (1990)

















Track Listing

1. Country Home
2. White Line
3. Fuckin' Up
4. Over And Over
5. Love To Burn
6. Farmer John
7. Mansion On The Hill
8. Days That Used To Be
9. Love And Only Love
10. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)

Review

I am a big Neil Young fan, but I have to say this wasn't the most exciting of his albums, he is very much past his prime by 1990. However, and it is a big however, from the cover to the music particularly Fuckin' Up, Young is showing the direct line between him and the Grunge to come a year later.

The album is unpolished in a good way, the songs are angry, Crazy Horse do what they do best, meaning not be extremely competent but still pull it off and there is a whole home-made feel to this album that sets it off as a precursor to the next big thing.

In the end, however, there just isn't much to be excited about here, Neil is competent enough but doesn't shine through as he did in earlier albums, this is generally seen as a return to form, but only because his albums before this for most of the 70s and 80s were much worse, not because he is back to his days of glory... pity.

Track Highlights

1. Fuckin' Up
2. Love To Burn
3. Love and Only Love
4. Country Home

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album revisits the hard rock style previously explored on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Zuma. The first two tracks are songs Young and Crazy Horse originally wrote and performed live in the 1970s. "Farmer John" is a cover of a 60s song, written and performed by R&B duo Don and Dewey and also performed by garage band The Premiers. Young admitted that the song "Days that Used to Be" is inspired on Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages". The album features many extended guitar jams, with two songs stretching out to ten minutes and more.

Fuckin' Up with Pearl Jam:

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