Neil Young - After The Goldrush (After The Gold Rush - Neil Young)

Member Name: Scottyboy_Peanut

Product:	After The Gold Rush - Neil Young
Date:	25/05/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some very good songs.

Disadvantages: Not his very best, but not far off.

Neil Young is far from my usual musical diet but my father is a huge fan so Mr Young has been part of the background noise in our house for as long as I can remember.

He may no have the most appealing voice but it us very distinctive and grows on any listener is you're willing to give it time. He has an expressive voice, when he's in a melancholy mood he'll make you feel the same and when he's rocking out you'll bop your head along with him.

Vocal ability aside, the one thing you can say about Neil Young is that he is a great song writer, and prolific too. Not counting his collaborations with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Steels and Nash so far in his long career he has 33 solo albums to his name.

After The Gold Rush was the third outing as a solo artist and was originally released in 1970 just six months after his name was added to the Crosby Steels and Nash release De Ja Vu.

The track listing is;
Tell Me Why
After The Gold Rush
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Southern Man
Till The Morning Comes
Oh, Lonesome Me
Don't Let it Bring You Down
Birds
When You Dance You Can Really Love
I Believe In You
Cripple Creek Ferry


Working with David Crosby seems to have had immediate impact on Neil Young at the album opens with Tell Me Why and it has more vocal harmonies than he'd used up to this point in his career. Accompanied by acoustic guitar this is a very strong opening to the album

The title track is a song that I'm sure everybody knows even they actually aren't aware of it. The melodic piano tinkers away as Young sings of ecological doom.

Young's lyrics can often be obscure and make little sense. Case in point here with When You Dance You Can Really Love. Along with Southern Man this is probably the most rocking track on the album as electric guitars drive along lyrics that don't really much.

There are no such problems with the lyrics to Southern Man however and it is clear that Neil Young has a low opinion of the stereotypical Southern gentleman. I don't know if his opinion of the residents of the deep south are valid or not but this is the highlight of the album for me with some fabulous guitar work.

This definitely isn't one of Young's rock albums, it is dominated by very mellow, laid back, acoustic tracks. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Don't Let It Bring you Down and Birds are three very beautiful ballads but ballad of the album for me is I Believe In you. This is a truly gorgeous to these ears.

Overall this is a strong album and if you enjoy Neil Young's work then you will enjoy this. There isn't a bad song on it.

If you're a newcomer to Neil Young I would recommend Harvest and Harvest Moon as a first step where you'll hear him at his very best before exploring more of his material such as this.

Summary: An enjoyable album, give it a try.