The 1980s were a bad decade for a lot of legacy music artists, but none disappointed in that decade more memorably than Neil Young. Yes Bob Dylan would cut some stinkers and Johnny Cash would lose the plot, but Young's albums jumped all over the place and sounded nothing like his signature sound. I first started listening to Young in the early 1990s, and every article about him commented on the astounding weirdness of the prior decade. I will admit, that kept me from listening to any of these albums before doing this series. While conventional wisdom is often wrong, there's a reason Young has barely put out any Archives releases from this period.
Hawks and Doves, 1980
This is the Neil Young record I most reliably see at every used record store. The first side is songs from his "lost albums" of 1974-1977. Because their choice is scattershot, they don't cohere, and "Lost in Space" is a sub-par outlier, the songs are less effective than they ought to be. Side two is mostly recent material, jaunty and countrified and politically conservative. It's also not that great. "Union Man" mocks the musicians' union and unions in general. "Hawks & Doves" seems to be backing Reaganite foreign policy. "Stayin' Power" is so awful I can barely listen to it. The album is also under a half hour long, an admission of artistic bankruptcy. Things are not looking good.
Rating: Three Neils
Re*ac*tor, 1981 (with Crazy Horse)
Young is back on the Horse here. Their smash and bash is welcome but can't save this weak batch of songs. (This is another album I reliably see at used record stores.) When things come together I can enjoy the Crazy Horse chaos, like on "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze" and "Opera Star." The xenophobic anti-Japanese car message of "Motor City" is annoying but Crazy Horse pops. In terms of weak songs, Young got a lot of flack for "T-Bone," which is almost ten minutes long and whose lyrics solely consist of "Got mashed potatoes/ Don't got no t-bone." Like a lot of Young's 80s stunts, this is something that sounds a lot more amusing than it is to listen to. Crazy Horse saves this one.
Rating; Three Neils
Trans, 1983
This is probably the most infamous of Neil Young's experiments, his first for Geffen Records. Young completely eschews his old sound for an electro-rock buzz overlaid with Vocoder-distorted vocals. I am a huge Kraftwerk fan, so of course I loved it. "Computer Age" is almost worthy of Hutter, Schneider, and co. Two friends who are following this project were especially keen to hear my thoughts on this one, and now I know why. At times this sounds more derivative of new wave artists than it does original, and I'd rather listen to the real thing rather than an imitation. For the most, however, I think it works. That however was the opposite of what critics and fans thought at the time.
Rating: Four Neils
Everybody's Rockin', 1983 with the Shocking Pinks
Trans could have been just a one-off deviation, but then Young put out a rockabilly record, one only 25 minutes long with plenty of covers. This was the clearest sign that he had decided to completely distance himself from his career up to this point. The songs aren't horrible, but they are not good and don't even rise to the level of paint-by-numbers rockabilly. This was a time when bands like Stray Cats and Big Daddy were successfully putting their own spin on this music and updating it for the 80s. Young does not sound like a famous musical artist, but more like the leader of a local cover band. Of all his genre experiments this is by far the worst.
Rating: Two Neils
Old Ways, 1985 with the International Harvesters
After cutting a bad rockabilly record Young made some okay country music. He had flirted with the genre on Hawks and Doves and American Stars N' Bars, and here he goes all in. Because it's the 80s, the country in question is very "Nashville Sound," with strings on multiple tracks reminiscent of those on George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Some of the songs are nevertheless pretty enjoyable. It's great to hear him sing with Wille and Waylon and Young appears to be having a good time for a change. Something about this album just doesn't seem to work, though. On most of the songs his voice lacks the depth you need to sing traditional country. Young's voice sounds thin, as if he's not even really putting himself into it. The album cover, showing his back as he is walking down a road away from the viewer is symbolic of a man turning his back on his audience and also seemingly removed from his own music. This isn't a bad record, but it could have been so much better.
Rating: Three Neils
A Treasure, recorded 1984-1985 and released in 2011
This is one of the few currently existing Archives releases from the 1980s. From what I've read it sounds like Young has some "lost" albums in this period that might end up getting released. In any case, I think it's telling that this is the sole release from the first half of the 80s, since his country work with the International Harvesters backing band is the only thing from this period where Young seems to be having a good time. The backing band is full of Nashville pros, so they know how to play. On record Young's singing did not match the country material, as good as the band could lay it down. Live he has more energy, and his country sojourn actually feels like it was a good idea poorly executed. I really dig the country takes on older Young tunes like "Are You Ready For The Country," and especially "Flying on the Ground is Wrong." Lyrically some of this material suffers from Young's engagement in cranky middle-aged conservatism, but I guess that stuff fits better in a country milieu. Unlike pretty much everything else in this installment of the blog, I actually ENJOYED this music. (I like Trans, but that's more something I appreciate rather than enjoy.)
Rating: Four Neils
Landing on Water, 1986
I'd never heard a note of this one before, and was taken aback when I was immediately hit by the big snare and synth sound of 80s corporate rock when I put it on. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em I guess. This sounds like a less well-executed Genesis album. Geffen had sued Young for not putting out "representative music" and I wonder if this album is troll by Young, effectively saying "OK, let me sound like every other aging rock act in the 80s." As with his other albums since Hawks and Doves, the songs are weak. In some cases the 80s sound is done in such an extreme way that I almost -almost- find it brilliant as parody. Either way, I will not listen to this ever again.
Rating: One and a half Neils
Life, 1987 with Crazy Horse
The conventional wisdom on this album is that it's the moment when Young started to pull himself out of the depths of his failed experiments in the 80s and make better music. Having just listened to it for the first time, I can't really go for that narrative. The album is really uneven, with some highlights like "Prisoners of Rock and Roll" and plenty of forgettable tunes. He's back on the Horse, but the heavy 80s production style feels cold and digital, undercutting what Young and the Horse do best with their normally warm sound. At least his politics have returned to skepticism of American empire instead of the rah-rah bullshit from earlier in the decade. I might give this one a relisten just to check and see if my impressions are right.
Rating: Two and a half Neils
This Note's For You, 1988 with the Blue Notes
"This Note's For You" is the first contemporary Neil Young song I ever heard, courtesy of the video getting a lot of MTV airplay after they had initially banned it. Its anti-sellout message fit well with the anti-Reagan backlash of the late 1980s and its attendant questioning of runaway capitalism. The anger in the song is welcome too, I get the sense that Young CARES again. I have not felt that much this decade. While the blues sound here is more the ersatz blues of the Blues Brothers than it is Buddy Guy or Muddy Waters, it is a welcome change from the godawful corporate rock sound of the last two albums. Not all of the songs work, but I found myself grooving to its vibe, which felt the least forced of any of the genre experiment albums. Thank goodness this was the last one.
Rating: Three Neils
Bluenote Cafe, recorded in 1987-1988 with the Blue Notes and released in 2015
As with the country material, the live versions have more fun and adventurous vibe than the studio versions. There are a lot of songs here not on the record, but few catalog numbers. Young's old stuff probably wouldn't have worked as blues songs. Anyway, this isn't the best thing around, but it's a hoot.
Rating: Three and a half Neils
American Dream, 1988 with CSNY
I wanted to just straight rip this album, but I know that it was recorded in the first place because Young had promised David Crosby he would do so if Crosby got off drugs. That means this album is a literal labor of love. Too bad more of that spirit does not show up in the grooves. It's really long, the songs are not very distinct, there's few of those great harmonies, and the production style off-brand 80s Genesis. It came out at the same time that The Who and Jefferson Airplane got back together for tours and the Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead were scoring hit songs and tours. I came of musical age in this environment, which encouraged me to love the music created by an older generation before I was born. In a lot of ways, that has lead to me today in my 40s writing this long Neil Young series.
Rating; Two Neils
At this point in his career Young could have become yet another geezer act, making money on what he'd written as a young man. In a stunning rebirth, Young would soon prove in the next decade that he was no oldies act, but rather an artist with new tricks up his sleeve.
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