Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill, Oct. 2012

I like this album tons but Le Noise is better imo

Dying at the "I used to dig Picasso" lyric in Driftin' Back.

I've always thought a lot of the "Le Noise" tracks would have sounded great backed by the Horse, like "Sleeps With Angels" level of eerie and rocking.

yeah was hoping at least one of those would make it into rotation this tour.

Dying at the "I used to dig Picasso" lyric in Driftin' Back.

― This Is Not An ILX Username (LaMonte), Sunday, November 11, 2012 2:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i am grateful that i did not read anything about the record before listening, so i could just crack the fuck up barely believing my ears

Ramada Inn makes this album for me.

― Duke, Wednesday, November 7, 2012 6:54 PM (4 days ago)

Still this ^^^. Best song on this album. Great lyrics, great vibe, great guitar playing...

///BRAG ALERT///

waiting to hear this until after I see the tour (got tickets today for the 30th)

so giddy right now

Listened to Broken Arrow on the train home tonight. It stomps all over this record - except for "Walk Like a Giant," which continues to rule.

Don't know if it quite "stomps" all over it, but Broken Arrow certainly never got the praise it deserves.

I guess I should revisit Broken Arrow - I never really connected with that one at the time, and oddly, the only song I remember from it is the acoustic one ("Music Arcade")

It's really good. The guitar jams are of a reasonable length (7-9 minutes), and the short songs are solid and catchy. The only thing I don't really like is the "fake live" version of "Baby What You Want Me To Do" that closes it out - it's not as loud or distorted as the bulk of the album, and the crowd noise adds nothing. He should have just released a full-on studio version.

I think it's actually live (think they did a few "secret" club shows around that time), which makes the listlessness of the performance that much more inexplicable.

That song aside, Broken Arrow is one of the better Crazy Horse dealies, just a tiny tiny notch below Ragged Glory.

I think it's several notches below "Ragged Glory," but I think being underrated for so many years has left it somewhat fresher. It's by no means one of my favorites, but when I put it on I'm always pleasantly surprised by a few tracks.

yeah, i think the opening three tracks + music arcade are kind of killer, can barely remember the rest. though i kind of like the utter halfassedness of the "baby what you want me to do" cover. those "secret show" bootlegs are great.

but back to psychedelic pill -- i'm loving it. still kinda digging in, but it's a really strong effort.

Kind of weird that the band began its tour well before the album came out, though well after the album that came out earlier this year.

Neil Young must have the shortest, most ironclad major label contract ever.

1. Never say no to Neil Young.
2. At all other times, leave Neil Young alone.

Even fucking Sinatra couldn't say no to Neil Young:

In 1976, the Reprise label was deactivated by Warner Brothers and all of its roster (except Frank Sinatra and Neil Young) was moved to the main Warner Bros. label. An unconfirmed explanation for this move is that Sinatra wanted to be the only artist on Reprise, and Young is said to have been the only Reprise act who refused to agree to a change in labels.[citation needed].

I hear they also liked big cars and model trains.

i quite like the album, esp. "ramada inn" and "she's always dancing" but what really puts me off is neil young's voice which simply totally kills all that wonderful guitar interaction. why the fuck doesn't he just shut up? don't get me wrong i like his voice in the right context like just on his own with his acoustic guitar. but here it sounds so unbelievably wrong. it makes you think that all those guitars are in reality played by mice. so crap. if the album had been 100% instrumental and it would have been condensed into 60 minutes it would have been the greatest release of 2012. but like this it is just about in the top ten. the ballads are rubbish too, eg "for the love of man".

I just spoke with Neil and he's cool with top ten.

i've been making up my own words for driftin back
"now i'm checkin' my email / got an email from my mom / hey now now hey now now"

8 debut on the billboard chartzz

"can't remember what I had for breakfast / probably had toast and eggs / hey now now hey now now."

"listenin' to oneida / man they sound far out / hey now now hey now now"

I've made my peace with "Driftin' Back"'s lyrics. If I love a song enough musically, lyrics that at first fall short eventually just become an abstraction. I sing along with every line in the car, and don't really care what they mean.

No Hip Hop Haircut for you!/Hey Now Now Hey Now Now

I used to dig Hip Hop haircuts/then Jesus came along, turned them all into mp3s/hey now now, hey now now.

8 debut on the billboard chartzz

it's a 2cd right? so it actually pushed half as many copies. considering le noise and americana debuted at 2 i'm guessing that's a drop unless it was a real busy week

lol wait i was looking at canadian number. americana debuted at 4 and lenoise at 14

pill at 34k (so really 17k iirc), americana had 44k first week sales - admittedly this is his second album in a year at a daunting price

Not that expensive - Best Buy has it for $14.99.

huh, i just assumed it was a solid 2CD price considering the vinyl price ref'd a while back was insane. If there is still a lot of Americana on the shelves that might have affected pre-orders for this

xpost Amazon had it for about the same. Perhaps Neilheads spent their $$$ that week on Taylor Swift for their kids/younger relations, or are perhaps just waiting for the Pono.

I think the 2 discers listing for old school msrps these days are the Universal (and sometimes Rhino) "deluxe editions" of old albums.

That Taylor Swift / She's got a lot of boyfriends / Hey now now hey now now

There's different one/in every song/Hey now now hey now now

I got it for 16'99 on sale at an indie store

Mine was $17.99 / $15.99 the week before / hey now now hey now now

Digital download only costs 5% of full price if I understand Neil correctly.

she's always dancing is really great, that song has grown on me so much

that's the song i purchased in the end. that plaintive guitar on it is neil's, isn't it? it kind of sounds like a human to me. with emotions, tears and stuff.

i really like this album! definitely the neil album i've enjoyed the most since ... silver & gold? probably. i get most of the complaints about the lyrics, but i don't care that much about the lyrics as long as there's that guitarrrrrrr.

Agree. My favourite new NY album in a long time. I also love the guitar. I understand those that regret that Neil isn't letting off Weld-style fireworks. I sort of do too. But we're twenty years down the line from then. This sound fits with almost-70-year-old Neil.

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE TO PERFORM BENEFIT CONCERT FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE SANDY NEXT THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6TH

"A SPECIAL EVENING WITH NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE" TO TAKE PLACE AT BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA IN ATLANTIC CITY

The question is: do they play "Like a Hurricane?"

UK tour 2013!

June 10th - Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
June 11th - Birmingham LG Arena
June 13th - Glasgow SECC
June 15th - Dublin RDS Arena
June 17th - London O2 Arena

seems to be a tour of the UK's most horrible venues

Yeah, what a shame. Neil is one of the few artists I'm grudgingly willing to lift my boycott of the SECC for, though - I've never seen him play with Crazy Horse before and who knows how long it'll be before they make it back to the UK?

seems relatively ambitious set of venues

no problems with getting tickets though leading up to it

listened to this album on the (long) bus ride into work today...corny lyrics eradicated by pure righteousness of the playing. twisted road sounds like an Alabama song, i realized.