Album Review: Neil Young - Americana

19 June 2012 | 3:34 pm | Dan Condon

Many will be offended by the loose, brash approach Young has taken to these classic numbers, but then these people clearly don’t know Neil Young.

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Many of Neil Young's songs feel anthemic, possessing the kind of quality that takes them from the hands of their writer and gives them to those who sing, play or just simply love them. The songs on Neil Young's 34th album Americana all have that same quality, though perhaps in a more organic sense. These are traditional songs that have never really belonged to anyone but the people and, as such, anyone – Young included – can do what they want to them.

With his Crazy Horse in tow for the first time since 2003's Greendale, Young indeed does what he wants to these songs and it sounds like a lot of fun. This does not mean, however, every listener is going to have fun listening to this album. Many will be offended by the loose, brash approach Young has taken to these classic numbers, but then these people clearly don't know Neil Young. There's plenty of out of tune crooning, long passages of distorted guitar noodling, chopping and changing of arrangements and other Young wildness that many mightn't take so well. 

Americana is a lot more freewheeling and less claustrophobic than 2010's Le Noise; Get A Job has Crazy Horse in doo-wop mode, Travel On makes you feel like a fly on the wall of a Crazy Horse jam, Jesus' Chariot is made very dark and rendered nigh on unrecognisable, while This Land Is Your Land is give a very straight, faithful going over. These are classic songs played well, but with the wild Crazy Horse edge; if you like the way Young and co. operate, this will be immensely satisfying and thrilling, but traditionalists might want to stay away.