REVIEWS: EARTH by Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Neil Young's "Earth" (cover)
(Click photo to enlarge)
A very enjoyable review of the new album EARTH by Neil Young + Promise of the Real from Paste by Douglas Heselgrave.

Here's a setup mid review, but be sure to check the beginning and end of the very thorough, well thought review...

This might be the perfect time for a confession of sorts. You see, Neil Young, nature recordings and I go a long way back. In one of those rare instances where life imitates art, I got the jump on the Earth album concept about 30 years ago when I was still a university student. My record player was broken, and one Sunday afternoon I was at my parents’ house transferring Young’s Live Rust from vinyl onto a cassette. I was broke, so I decided to tape over an old National Geographic Songs of the Humpback Whale cassette that my brother used for a science project many years ago rather than go out and buy new cassettes that I couldn’t afford. Something went wrong, however, and when I popped Live Rust into the car tape deck, Neil Young’s voice came out of the right speaker, but there was something wrong with the left channel. I could still hear the whale songs.

At first, I was pissed off because I would have to re-tape the album, but three songs later, by the time I had driven home, I started to think that the tape sounded pretty good and that Neil and the humpbacks weren’t such a bad fit. Especially on “Cortez the Killer”—the whale’s mournful cries seemed to echo the fate of the Aztecs as they succumbed to the terrors of invasions. Over the next 20 years or so, while driving late at night or on those special occasions when we’d been digging deep into the tickle trunk for medicine and listened to Neil and the whales with the lights off, the connections between Young’s music and nature took on an almost mystical quality. When I told Neil Young’s publicist this story a few weeks ago, he asked me to look for the cassette to send him a copy, but sadly after much scrambling around in the basement, I realize that, like so many other things, it’s been lost to time. I like to imagine the person who has the tape now putting it on and wondering what the hell they’re listening to.

Again, check full review in Paste by Douglas Heselgrave.

Other meta review (via Rusted Moon):

• Lynne Margolis, American songwriter: "Sometimes it exceeds the expectations Who would have thought that a heavenly children's choir and a softer piano." After the gold rush "can make you more beautiful Youngs wave but beguiling vocals, accompanied especially by his acoustic guitar playing? and harmonica, give two other vintage tracks - 'Human Highway' and 'Western Hero' - a similar beauty ". 3 stars
• Adrian Thrills, Daily Mail: ". The simpler songs work best 'Mother Earth' - the 'a world governed by greed' complains - is driven by driving Keyboards, thunderclaps and a chorus of frogs." 3 of 5
• Will Hodgkinson, The Times:  "There is a threatening atmosphere in this strange, thrilling album." 4 of 5
• Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY: "Although Young on EARTH is his righteous anger openly displayed - everyone who thinks he's cranky, will anyway not be swayed - there are moments wonderful grace and uninhibited gratitude as' Wolf Moon 'by' Monsanto '. Its beautiful acoustic arrangement is embellished here with glowing harmonies. "
• Joe Breen, The Irish Times: "Typically, it drives Young at the top - but that's one of the characteristics that make him so endearing." 4 of 5 stars
• Douglas Hesel Grave, Paste Magazine:  "For whatever reason, 'EARTH' is a captivating, very credible recording that stands on its own it is from start to finish, bold, uncompromising, but funny and beautiful as the landscapes.. he sings, is 'EARTH' a gnarled old oak of an album that is made ​​to last. Not for beginners or slightly frightening. " 8.8 out of 10
• Doug Collete, All About Jazz: " 'Human Highway' is as close to the classic Neil Young sound like the piano and the superimposed voices on 'after the gold rush' The effects do not fall on so much because they are not sustainable. . their use seems to be a concession to the public -., hoping to draw the interest of listeners to its newer, socially critical compositions " 3.5 of 4
• Alex Tuck, Asbury Park Press: "On the whole, it is remarkable how well 'EARTH' works Youngs setlist manages to illuminate a subject that his work determined for decades on a large scale and the unconventional presentation shows how Young already.. has always played for the earth, both in their name and for their entertainment - all together ".
• Udo Raaf, Tonspion.de: "Purists deterred so much obvious reworking, Young wants to probably set an example and make audible what other artists are trying discreetly to conceal, such as a plastic surgery." 5 out of 6 stars
• Miachel fungus THE WORLD: "music that you can not just stream. One piece is for half an hour between the pieces ensure its animals that the algorithms for the breaks to be outwitted There is no more silence There are.. again an album with an idea. "
• David Fricke, Rolling Stone: "It is as if you would get the 1991 album 'WELD', taken at Farm Aid with the fervor of 'Freedom'." 3.5 of 5 stars
• Jim Farber, Entertainment Weekly: "The band has a dynamic that differs from Youngs Lanzeitverbündeten 'Crazy Horse': 'Promise of the Real' have the advantage of a second lead guitar, which contrasts Youngs wild shriek with sleeker lines." B -
• Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork: "It does not come as a by Neil final works, therefore, but with EARTH Young achieved something that he did not make his albums for a while: He has made ​​an album that is worth it, for a time long to deal with it. " 6.5 out of 10
• Lee Zimmerman, Glide Magazine: ". These songs are striking in the musical sense Young, never the most dynamic singers, here is remarkably expressive." 8 of 10
• Tyrolean newspaper: "Promise of the Real are respectful to the material, but interpret it strong and refreshing, creating a bridge between Young evergreens, rarities and new."
• Andreas Rauschal, Wiener Zeitung: "Between the einläutenden Harmonium version of" Mother Earth "and the 28-minute freakout with" Love And Only Love "at the end sound the ducks at" Country Home "short as free jazz saxophones, sometimes you can hear rhythmic Raben and swarms of flies mimic applause, mostly our animal friends are but also extra-musical accessories as the interspersed as a counterpoint traffic noise. "
• Scott Bauer, Associated Press: " How stupid may sound all the animal sounds, the end result is a strangely hypnotic ode to Mother Earth, a way back into the garden, if you will, for an artist who has so much of his career has spent to sing against environmental degradation. "

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