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Jul 18, 2014This one is an expression of respect to people whose work shaped his, as well as grateful a shout-out to a few pals who haven’t passed yet.
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Q MagazineJun 13, 2014It's a curious artifact for sure, but it casts a unique spell. [Jul 2014, p.111]
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May 27, 2014Its gloom is potent and pervasive, and, while you're mired in it, A Letter Home doesn't seem like a baffling act of wilful perversity. It makes perfect sense, as it presumably does to the man who recorded it.
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May 27, 2014Without any studio trickery to distract from the songs, versions of Bert Jansch's Needle of Death and Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind sound particularly affecting.
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May 27, 2014Accompanied by Jack White, at whose studio he recorded on the Voice-O-Graph, Young sings with a perspective and appreciation that his 68 years undoubtedly bring.
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May 27, 2014As a whole, Young and White have managed to make an album that’s absolutely useful with a recording process that is absolutely central to that use.
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UncutJun 4, 2014A Letter Home illustrates that vagaries of sound quality can sometimes enhance the drama of a record, and rarely undermine the potency of a good song. [Jul 2014, p.68]
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May 28, 2014Once you've heard the undoctored edition of Bert Jansch's heartbreaking "Needle of Death," a harrowing tale of self-destruction by heroin predating Young's own "The Needle and the Damage Done," the noisier approach feels like needless gimmickry that diminishes, rather than enhances, one of his strongest sets in a long time.
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May 27, 2014Some will find A Letter Home something of a gimmick and it’s hard to see it being anything other than a peripheral addition to his substantial catalogue.
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May 27, 2014Sure, there's artifice and humor here, but there's also heart, and this blend of emotions is what makes A Letter Home one of Neil Young's quintessential, endearingly odd records.
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May 2, 2014At its best, though, A Letter Home plays like a crackly field recording from a lost world.
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May 27, 2014Is it essential? Not really. Get Young's "Unplugged" instead. Still, underestimate this would-be throwaway record at your peril.
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May 2, 2014For an album recorded primitively inside a Nashville box, there are some stunning performances on A Letter Home.... Occasionally, though, the recording quality distracts from the album's content.