After the Gold Rush - Neil Young (1970)

 

Neil Young After The Gold Rush may be among the best of the earthy, early seventies singer-songwriter genre, up there with Paul Simon, Tea for the Tillerman, and Tapestry. This may be the most varied of all of those, now that I think ot it: it's pretty folky overall, featuring the songs that woudl sound good sung around a campfire in summer.  But it also features a couple of delicate piano ballads and a song or two that definitely rock -- especially the blistering "Southern Man", which is probably the most famous song here.

Neil Young's thin, plaintive voice is an odd instrument: it conveys melody pretty well, though (on key or not) and it has a way of just sucking you in. There just seems to be some kind of thing that it has that quietly commands your attention. It's all heart and soul, little technique: like his guitar, playing in fact.

On "Southern Man"and elsewhere Neil really lets rip on his guitar, which is more expressive than impressive, but I've always loved the way his inarticulate playing connects. You can feel his anger and frustration.

But the majority of the album is a low-key mellow affair.  Themes of connecting with nature, or mourning nature's demise, lost love, and home-grown comforts of the country abound. It's unabashedly seventies: wood-panelled, flannel-shirted, bell-bottomed, all shades of brown, beige and tan.

For an album often hailed as Young's best and one of the best ever, it's surprisingly unambitious and down to earth. But the fact is there are so many good songs, it does sort of sink into you.

I feel pretty good giving this a 

5/5

Neil Young hates Spotify because they have some podcasts he doesnt like, so I can't link to it. But apparently the full album can be streamed on YouTube. and it streams on Neil Young's website:

https://neilyoungarchives.com/album?id=A_010&tab=songs

By the way, I hate the "singer-songwriter" classification. It seems kind of generic. But it's hard to categorize this album which is mostly folk rock but has some straight ahead rock as well as some piano ballads. And somehow, "singer-songwriter" does suggest this early seventies vein of literate softish rock. This would be one of the more rocking entries to the genre, I suppose.

Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.


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