Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Q MagazineNov 13, 2014Storytone presents the same 10 songs twice: compellingly naked save for a guitar or ukulele, then dressed to kill in Hollywood strings and big band brass. [Dec 2014, p.119]
-
Nov 3, 2014The vocals hold just enough honest rough spots to celebrate, everywhere else, the purity and committed fragility of Mr. Young’s voice, which is high and clear, even though he’ll be 69 on Nov. 12.
-
Oct 31, 2014The orchestrations also let us focus on Young as a pure singer, rather than as a holistic musician. And he’s a remarkably effective one. In his aged, spindly whine lies a world of emotion.
-
Oct 31, 2014Many of these songs convey a querulous romance, but while the orchestra a chocolatey smoothness to the sound that renders emotional complexity glossy and neat.
-
Dec 8, 2014He’s crafted a tender and often forlorn eco-treatise.
-
Nov 4, 2014The songs on Storytone glide between those highs and lows with very few false moves, making this one stylistic detour that takes Neil Young very close to his artistic home.
-
Nov 4, 2014Certainly, the most innovative thing about Storytone is its presentation, with each of the album’s 10 songs recorded in acoustic and fully orchestrated versions.
-
UncutOct 31, 2014The choral refrain of the title hook, meanwhile, imposes collectivity on the query--just about the only time on the whole of Storytone that the horizon stretches further than Neil's emotional backyard. [Dec 2014, p.79]
-
Oct 31, 2014When he calls the 92-piece orchestra in, the results are mixed.
-
Classic Rock MagazineJan 9, 2015Super-smooth strings, bluesy stomps and immense righteousness are crammed into this varied, if oddly disparate selection. [Feb 2015, p.98]
-
MojoNov 19, 2014Sheer vastness occasionally swamps the pained intimacy of Young's vocals and open-heart songs of regret, nostalgia and reflection. [Dec 2014, p.88]
-
Nov 6, 2014Nothing here is going to become a live-show staple, but after an underwhelming covers album earlier this year, fans will be pretty happy with this solid collection of original works.
-
Nov 4, 2014Young's scratchy vocal fails to complement its exquisitely cinematic orchestration until the final two lines show a fleshed-out poignancy. It's the same, too, with his blues performances.... At times, though, Young and his many collaborators do gel.
-
Nov 3, 2014As Storytone goes on, a pink-umbrella cocktail of vulnerability, bravery and Disney, it becomes engrossing--car-crash listening, even.
-
Nov 3, 2014It’s a long way from the rocker's angry persona, but he’s always had a soppy side. Sometimes the lyrics are also sloppy.
-
Nov 3, 2014By delivering this big, sloppy valentine to everything he is and everything he loves, he's not being neat but he is true to himself.
-
Nov 3, 2014Sometimes it sounds like a deathly serious joke. Other times, it sounds like nothing more than a nicely produced notion that happened to cross his mind one day.
-
Nov 5, 2014Sure, these mirrored LPs--10 songs given lavish orchestral arrangements and also offered as solo performances on a bonus disc--might be stronger as one cherry-picked set of unrepeated songs. But it wouldn't be half as interesting.
-
Nov 4, 2014You can admire its uncompromising spirit, but you can just as easily loathe its saccharine sound. After hearing some of these songs live in their acoustic forms, it’s jarring to see how Young has neutered them on record.... The album’s saving grace is its deluxe edition, which presents all 10 songs in stripped-down, intimate settings that allow you to savor and bask in their beauty.
-
Nov 3, 2014The orchestral Storytone comes off as a showy distraction. It's best ignored. Head for the acoustic version instead, which contains a handful of Young's better recent songs, syrup-free.
-
Nov 3, 2014Even though Storytone's gloppy Disney-movie strings and half-assed singing can be trying to sit through at times, the extent to which Young is willing to go to avoid resting on his laurels and making Even Longer After the Gold Rush is admirable. Namely, making an album that features almost none of the musical tropes listeners associate with Neil Young—or rock music in general.
-
Nov 4, 2014Despite the dual versions, Storytone never finds a comfortable middle ground: the orchestral versions too maudlin, the solo versions over-sharing.
-
Nov 11, 2014Besides his inflexibly skeletal vocals being an awkward fit for a full orchestra --his phrasing has a hard time keeping up with the loose, big band swing of “Say Hello to Chicago”--some of his clunky lyrics become even clunkier when taken out of a more hushed, intimate setting.
-
Dec 5, 2014Storytone’s deluxe edition carries an extra disc of solo takes: mostly Young and ukulele. It’s more palatable, but perhaps doesn’t reveal any more depth to the material.
-
Nov 21, 2014Listeners are best advised to head directly to disc two and regard the set with strings as a curiosity and an example of eccentric experimentation best left on the shelf.
-
Nov 4, 2014If A Letter Home worked to privilege and highlight songwriting tools like melody and lyricism, Storytone does the opposite, overwhelming any inherent heart or soul in Young’s original compositions.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 12 out of 27
-
Mixed: 7 out of 27
-
Negative: 8 out of 27
-
Nov 12, 2014
-
Nov 8, 2014