Psychedelic Pill
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Band Name: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
- Record Label: Reprise
- Release Date: Oct 30, 2012
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Nov 8, 201270Psychedelic Pill [is] yet another oddity in a catalog filled with them: it's noise rock as comfort food.
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Oct 30, 201270The sonic territory on Young's latest is perhaps a bit too expansive to be considered iconic or essential, but it proves that the 66-year-old rocker shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
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Oct 30, 201270Everything great about Neil Young, electric guitarist, is on full display, his singular tone veering from feral growls and feedback to blistering fury while the other three egg him on with subtle, perennially underrated counterpoint.
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Nov 21, 201280It has the messy, majestic sprawl of classic Crazy Horse. [Dec 2012, p.115]
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Oct 23, 201280To some, Psychedelic Pill will seem like a monumental work of self-indulgence. To others, though, its heft and eccentricity make it one of the purest expressions of Young's genius to date.
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Nov 21, 201280Soft-focus memories echo through all 88 minutes. [Dec 2012, p.89]
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Oct 30, 201280Young may feel like the last hippie standing, but he still sounds like a guy who believes the dreaming is not done.
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Oct 30, 201291Psychedelic Pill, with all its gritty warmth and haunting memories, is among his homiest.
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Oct 30, 201270The results are the most pleasant kind of rambling imaginable.
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Oct 29, 201280If the thought of tackling Young's longest ever studio album hasn't scared you off, you must be a fan. In which case, prepare yourself for a treat.
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Oct 30, 201280Half of these tracks are under four-and-a-half minutes, which makes Psychedelic Pill a vehicle for some of the most intense and blistering (and longest) tunes Neil Young & Crazy Horse have ever put to tape.
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Nov 1, 201291Psychedelic Pill allows pretty haunted melodies like "She's Always Dancing" to seep into the gaps between the jagged solos. [2 Nov 2012, p.68]
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Oct 25, 201280What really sets Psychedelic Pill out as some of Young's strongest work in a while though are those other epic tracks, which deliver that expansive, explorative sound with some deeper voyages into the singer's thoughts.
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Oct 30, 201270At its best, Psychedelic Pill is an invigorating, ramshackle, heavy beast. At its worst, it's enjoyably daft.
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Oct 25, 201280Shakey's first album of original songs with the Horse since 1996 wears their trademark sound like an old slipper – beautiful harmonies, plaintive chord changes and chugging country-rock rhythms that allow Young's improvised guitar solos room to roam.
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Oct 30, 201280Psychedelic Pill is earnest and perverse, simplistic and complicated, epic and underachieving--guess the old cuss still has it in him after all.
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Oct 23, 201280It's longwinded, taxing, and crunchily dissonant, bereft of even the token acoustic gem-not an album to be tinkered with by anyone who isn't already firmly in the Crazy Horse saddle. For those who are, the album will be something close to a revelation.
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Oct 23, 201280Psychedelic Pill is exactly the kind of noisy, joyfully loose and oddly hypnotizing guitar album we love Crazy Horse for.
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Oct 30, 201290Psychedelic Pill may be the best album Neil Young has ever done with Crazy Horse.
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Oct 25, 201280This isn't a conventional album by the ordinary standards of today, but it's fantastic. Crazy Horse are the perfect band for this sort of wistful noise, carrying both Young's simple melodies and his love of stretching out with equal ease.
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Nov 6, 201274Not for the fainthearted or short of attention, several of Psychedelic Pill's tracks drag on--wildly and intoxicatingly, of course, so there's little room for boredom to set in.
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Oct 31, 201270Psychedelic Pill is a maximalist work from Young; he has taken the central premise of one of his many musical sides and stretched its vision as far as it will go.
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Oct 31, 201260Too often bloat tempers the brilliance.
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Oct 29, 201270Psychedelic Pill doesn't try to ingratiate itself with new fans. It's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and one worth taking.
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Jan 4, 201370He's still evolving, and though the double CD Psychedelic Pill is far from nostalgic, he's spending a helluva lot of time looking back. [No. 94, p.61]
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Nov 5, 201290It veers from cautious optimism, to sadness and to those odd moments where you feel anything's possible. Young and Crazy Horse continue to run free.
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Dec 7, 201260As a collection, Psychedelic Pill is spotty and, at times, sleep-inducing.
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Oct 31, 201280It's a monster, coursing with primal ferocity and sending wave upon wave of le noise directly at your gut.
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Nov 1, 201260What we get on Psychedelic Pill are stream-of-consciousness attempts ("Driftin' Back"), along with musings on the grim reality of old age ("Ramada Inn") and the regrets that come with it ("Walk Like A Giant").
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Oct 29, 201280Even if [Psychedelic Pill is not essential], it's by some way the best non-essential album Neil Young has ever made.
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Oct 23, 201280Young's best album in some while.
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Oct 29, 201270The problem with Psychedelic Pill, and it's a substantial one, is that, besides that inspired ending, the instrumental passages don't distinguish themselves as being all that memorable.
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Nov 7, 201240It's sad to report then, that Psychedelic Pill is nothing less than a crushing disappointment as it gives way to Young's most meandering and directionless tendencies.
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Oct 29, 201260The man refuses to be parcelled up into neat bitstreams and that's never been clearer than on this uneven but involving album. This, it seems, is his message: embrace the sprawl.
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Oct 26, 201260It's a loose album, an indulgent album, and not all likeable but, unlike any other outfit of their tenure, they maintain a raw punch as if recording in a local bar for the sheer blast of it.
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Oct 29, 201275The foursome may be interrupted by time and circumstance, but whenever they find themselves in a room together with their instruments they pick up the conversation exactly where they left off.