Neil Young Reviews of AlbumsIn 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST) I cannot think of an album that for which Neil expended nearly the support effort as he did for Greendale. Three tours (Euro acoustic 2003, US electric 2003, US electric 2004.) Multimedia formats: detailed website including family tree and map and photos, cd, vinyl, bonus DVD's (a separate one for each of two cd editions), theatrically released film, DVD of said film with bonus materials. Neil went all out for Greendale in an unprecedented enthusiastic fashion.
Well before the album was released, sheesh well before the US tour started, I was very familiar the the songs and even the album song order. I was even present at the debut performance of any Greendale song played live, Falling From Above which was played both days at Bridge 2002. Having traded for some of the acoustic Euro tour shows in which all 10 of the songs were played acoustically, I knew the stories, knew the songs by heart. I was fortunate to have been able to attend the debut electric Greendale performance in West Palm Beach in 2003. I cannot express the depth of satisfaction I felt at hearing these songs that I already knew performed in this new (for public audiences anyway) electric way. It was stunning and amazing; the accompanying stage performance by dozens of actors just added to the effect of hearing these songs performed live and electric.
After all this excitement I'd experienced regarding the Greendale project, the album was released in August of 2003. I, for one, think it works fine as an audio album. The spare instrumentation is appropriate for the material. Neil sings/speaks this album in a way very well suited to his present-day voice. He sounds very comfortable and convincing. Unique to the album is Bandit played with the band, as opposed to solo acoustic. I like it both ways and think that the album version is terrific as is the solo acoustic rendition of the tours. In fact, I like all the songs on the album, I don't skip any of them when I listen. Especially strong for me on the audio album are Falling From Above, Devil's Sidewalk, Bringin' Down Dinner, Sun Green, and Be The Rain. Yes, I know there are some flubs and miscues and editing errors on the album track. But none of these kills the vibe for me. Greendale is a great album.
I very much enjoyed listening to Greendale today.
Mike - Expecting To Fly
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Greendale
For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.
More on the Greendale album, tour, film and DVD.
Neil Young - Thrasher's Wheat Archives: A Fan's Un Official Pages