Neil Young and Crazy Horse
_Sleeps With Angels_
Rating: ***** (5 Stars Out Of Five)
1994
Reprise Records (Time-Warner)
Formats: CD, Cassette, and LP (Reviewed
from CD)
Time: 62:53
Selections: 12 Tracks Ranging From 2:44 to
14:40
Overview: Strong possibility that this will end up on a lot of
people's
"best of the year" lists, but some hardcore Neil Young
and Crazy
Horse fans might be alienated by new directions. Overall a
stellar effort
with some strange, disturbing undercurrents.
Tracks:
1) My Heart (2:44)
2) Prime of Life (4:05)
3) Driveby (4:45)
4) Sleeps With Angels (2:46)
5) Western
Hero (4:00)
6) Change Your Mind (14:40)
7) Blue Eden (6:23)
8) Safeway Cart (6:33)
9) Train of Love (4:00)
10) Trans Am
(4:07)
11) Piece of Crap (3:16)
12) A Dream That Can Last (5:32)
Configuration:
Cassette
- Side 1 (1-6)
- Side 2
(7-12)
LP
- Side 1 (1-5)
- Side 2 (6)
- Side 3
(7-8)
- Side 4 (9-12)
Musicians:
Neil Young
Frank
"Poncho" Sampedro
Billy Talbot
Ralph Molina
After Neil Young's recent success with the accessible folk-pop of
Harvest
Moon and his Unplugged CDs, it was almost predictable that he would
return
to Crazy Horse for an album. The fact that Neil Young and Crazy
Horse would
produce an album like Sleeps
With Angels is anything but
predictable. America's recent penchant for straight
forward hard rock would
seem like a perfect opportunity for Neil to engage
in a grungefest like
1990's Ragged Glory and 1991's live Arc-Weld set. It
was not to be, though
a few tracks shine in punk rock glory, this album
simultaneously explores
vast new territories for Neil to mine in the future
as well as nodding to
past achievements. Overall, the effect is unsettling,
but one that anyone
who is interested in real rock music should hear immediately.
The
album starts off with, of all things, a lullaby. "My Heart"
is a
simple song that offers Neil's simple plea "My heart, my
heart/I've
got to keep my heart/It's not too late, it's not too late/I've
got to keep
my heart." Over the next hour, Neil shows the blistering
reality against
which his plea must be heard, a reality of a young girl
killed in a driveby
shooting, a reality of rock-star suicide, of ghetto
life and a society that
sells you the world but gives you nothing but a
piece of crap. Very little
in the Neil's previous canon sounds like
"My Heart", only "Lost
In Space" has been bandied about
as a possible comparison. Being played
on an old fashion western saloon
tack piano and with accompaniment of marimba
and vibes, this at first seems
like a strange begining to a rock album.
But Neil is creating a theme album
and once you hear the complete album,
you can't imagine any other song
starting off this collection.
"Prime of Life" marks
another first in terms of instrumentation
featuring Neil on Tibetan flute.
Musically, the song is a lot more funky
than anything he has done. Normally
when aging white male guitar players
trot out the mild funkish pop songs,
it is a
sign of trouble, but this one works despite my intial
reservations. The
guitar work here is subtle, but effective, almost
conjuring up visions of
Neil's solo debut as well as his better '87-'88
material. A good pop song
by an artist who spent over a decade doing
everything BUT pop music. Lyrically,
this song seems to be saying that you
can get through life without burning
out or fading away. A very important
message.
"Driveby" takes the album out of the middle of
the road and heads
straight for the ditch. The inspiration for this song
was a little girl
that Neil knew who was killed in a driveby shooting. Like
Neil's first ditch
period (Tonight's the Night/Time Fades Away/On The
Beach), this song is
one of pure emotion. This song was one of the reasons
that Neil plans to
do know promotion for this album, it is simply too
personal. It is an incredibly
sad song that seems to point out the
contradictions in this tragic world
of quick, unforseen death, it is the
total opposite of "Prime of Life",
but it is followed up with a
song that seems to bury the idea of that song.
"Sleeps With
Angels" is obviously about Kurt Cobain's suicide.
But Neil evokes Kurt
without ever mentioning names or specifics. It is a
terrifying song of
feedback and distorted vocals. Totally harrowing, but
essential listening.
I was sceptical before hearing it, but Neil is sympathetic
without being
exploitive. This seems to be because Kurt's suicide hit so
close to home
for Neil. Neil had been trying to get in contract with Kurt
the day before
his suicide with no luck. In his suicide note, Kurt quoted
from Neil
Young's song "Hey Hey, My My"... "It is better
to burn out
than to fade away." The spirit of this song hangs over
the entire
album. Probably the song of the year, but you can bet you will
never hear
it on the radio or MTV.
"Western Hero" takes a totally
different direction. This song
shares the same melody and nearly identical
arrangement with a later song
on the album, "Train of Love." They
seem to be bookending the
6th, 7th, and 8th songs which for the second act
in this drama. "Western
Hero" seems to be hinting at all kinds of
things without ever saying
them. "And on the shores at Normandy/He
fought for you, he fought for
me/Across the land and on the sea/But now
he's just a memory."
"Change Your Mind" is easily
one of Neil's best long songs ever.
Unlike Crazy Horse epics of the past
twenty years, this song strips off
all the distortion and gets to the heart
of the song. Neil is about the
only rock star I know who can take a normal
rock song structure and stretch
it out for nearly fifteen minutes without
becoming repetitive or boring.
This song has been edited down for radio
play in the United States, totally
understandable, but you need to hear the
whole thing to truly appreciate
it.
"Blue Eden" combines lyrics from three
different
songs on the album. It starts off where "Change Your Mind"
left
off and then picks up a bit of the chorus of "Train of Love"
and
concludes with words from the last verse of "Driveby." Neil
puts
some of his trademark feedback/distortion into the mix, creating a
work
reminisent of his best from On The Beach. However, the song is so
strange,
sporting no original lyrics that one almost could think that it is
a throwaway.
On the other hand, it seems to be the emotional core of the
album, revealing
the compelling truth in the guitar playing. My guess that
it is a lot of
both, Neil tends to be that way.
"Safeway
Cart" is more of a "This Note's For You" type
song like
"Twilight" minus the horns, featuring a baffling set
of almost
mystical, perhaps religious lyrics. Dark and obscure, this song
seems to be
a favorite of the hardcore Neil fanatics. I would be interested
to know
what outsiders think of this song. This song, along with "Change
Your
Mind" and "Blue Eden" seem to form a 28 minute trilogy
that
lies at the center of this album. I am not totally sure how it fits
in, but
it definitely seems to conclude this part of the album.
"Train of Love" is immediately familiar from the moment
you hear
it. It seems to be the begining of the third and final act of the
drama.
Reprising the melody of "Western Hero", including a very
similar
arrangement in the Harvest mode, Neil sings one of his best ballads
ever.
Normally a song like this would not appear on a Crazy Horse album,
and it
would have fit just fine on Harvest Moon. Neil seems to be getting
away
from the tragedy of the first act, and the darkness of the second and
is
trying to find away to cope with the madness in the world. Still the
possibility
for tragedy is there "To love and honor 'til death do us
part/Repeat
after me"
"Trans Am" is a Dylanesque
song in the mode of "Last Trip
To Tulsa" with a bit of
"Ordinary People" thrown in. I haven't
quite figured out what it
is about. It might be about a post-apocalyptic
world or the flip-side of
"Driveby". It definitely fits in with
the album sharing lyrical
references with other songs. I would love to hear
this one done as a full
tilt rocker, some slashing Neil feedback distortion
flurry would work well
here, but it is great as it is.
"Piece of Crap" is a
humorous gibe at comercialism. This is Crazy
Horse in "Fuckin'
Up"/"T- Bone" mode. Neil usually puts
a song like this on
every album, the exception that proves the rule. It
is a pure low-fi punk
blast of energy and attitude. Strangely, it fits just
fine here. I have
heard that this song is being promoted in Europe as the
single/radio track.
It is great, but there is little on the album that resembles
it.
"A Dream That Can Last" pulls it all together, ending
where "My
Heart" left off. It features the same Tack piano as the
first track,
but here it is much more sublime. The dream is heaven, the
final peace.
Let's hope Cobain found his.
Sleeps With Angels is
simply the best album out there at the moment. It
will probably go
unnoticed by the public at large since Neil is doing no
promotion for it
and it is not particularly commercial. But no doubt it
has already created
its own special niche in the rock history alongside
Tonight's the Night. A
lot of the album is depressing, but a lot of it offers
promise and hope.
Like a great novel, Sleeps With Angels offers you an insight
into the human
condition, not dictating answers, but dangling possibilities
out there,
what you make of it is up to you, but in the meantime we can
enjoy a
classic album from one of the greats.
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