Americana
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Band Name: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Record Label: Reprise
- Release Date: Jun 5, 2012
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Jun 12, 2012100In vivid contrast to the sanctimonious musicianly overkill of Springsteen's Pete Seeger tribute, Young's overkill leads with its middle finger by ignoring the catchiest tune of the 19th century, the traditional melody of "Oh Susannah."
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Jun 5, 2012100There's plenty to like about Neil Young and Crazy Horse's first work together for nine years, a collection of cover versions of essential American tunes.
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Jun 7, 201291Even on the 66-year-old's 34th album, Young still has fire in his belly and fun in his fingers.
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Jun 6, 201290Americana is, finally, Neil Young's best and most complete record since 1994's Sleeps With Angels.
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Jun 6, 201288Given Ben Keith's death last year, it's the perfect merge: Young's rough-hewn organics and the raucous Crazy Horse.
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Jun 4, 201288Americana reveals the hard truth inside songs that have been taken for granted.
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Jun 7, 201280In a world where many acts of a similar age rely on their past, eschewing their original passion and fire for heritage, tradition and tribute, it's comforting to know that Young can both usurp these elements and carry on ploughing his own furrow.
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Jun 5, 201280Young reignites melodies and lyrics sadly frozen through years of rote recitation.
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Jun 1, 201280Neil Young and Crazy Horse, when they're at the top of their game like they are here, can make music of any origin rock.
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Jun 1, 201275Loose, loud, and fun.
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Jul 24, 201270The album comes over as a political parable as much as an investigation into the spirit of place. [Jun 2012, p.56]
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Jun 20, 201270Americana brings these songs back to life, and reclaims America's musical history with them.
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Jun 14, 201270You have never heard these songs like they are presented here, and there's a chance you have never heard them better, either.
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Jun 13, 201270Young makes these old, old songs vital. [No.88 p. 51]
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Jun 5, 201270There's an undeniable WTF factor in hearing these Cub Scout singalong ditties drowned in guitar feedback and off-key yelling. But that's the goofball charm.
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Jun 1, 201270It seems pretty much like business as usual. [Jul 2012, p.63]
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Jun 1, 201261Americana doesn't so much amount to a caustic commentary on the modern-day American condition as capture a bunch of old pals trying to rediscover their chemistry by sloppily jamming on some standards.
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Oct 12, 201260The fun doesn't always translate to the listener. [Jul 2012, p.113]
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Jun 14, 201260The rest is solid if rarely spectacular, with the Crazy Horse rumble making a welcome return to Young's modern day repertoire.
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Jun 6, 201260While the sound of this is pretty uniform the quality is all over the place and very dependent on the song being covered.
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Jun 6, 201260Neil Young and Crazy Horse just never disappoint.
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Jun 4, 201260Though drab and overlong, it has a certain rugged, whiskery charm, which doesn't extend to the concluding "God Save the Queen", a stodge too far.
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Jun 4, 201260It gives us songs more memorable for their grizzly narrations or the occasional doo-wop harmony than the steady performances of mostly standard-format jams.
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Jun 1, 201260Americana in a nutshell: beloved songs from America's past, be they folk, blues or pop songs, such as the Silhouette's 1958 No 1 Get a Job, put through the mangle of Young's overdriven guitar and stretched to unnecessary lengths.
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Jun 6, 201250While it's briefly thrilling to hear Young's bolshy take on Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land', it's nowhere near Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin standards, or even a Bob Dylan Christmas album.
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Jun 26, 201240While the power-soak guitar solos ard gung-ho buck of Crazy Horse are present and correct, it's curious that Americana packs songs that don't fit its brief. [Jul 2012, p.88]
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Jun 7, 201240Going for immediate and real, Young ends up with a disc that resembles a tentative early demo for what could have been a decent (albeit strange) Crazy Horse album.
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Jun 5, 201240It is cursory, lumpen and dull.
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Jun 5, 201240It all winds up as an ungodly mess: Crazy Horse do, as Young asserted they would, make these songs their own, but by doing so, they've made them so nobody else would ever want them.
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Jun 4, 201240In attempting to honor the sounds of the past, Young ends up turning them into toxic sludge.
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Jun 1, 201240It's the dampest campfire hoedown you ever did hear.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 3
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10The more I listen to Americana, the more I realize how vital these traditional songs sound when Neil and the Horse start to groove off of each other.