PREVIEW NEW ALBUM: "Before and After" Pt. 2 by Neil Young
Part #2 of Neil Young's latest album "Before And After" is now streaming.
Pt. 2 songs: On The Way Home/If You Got Love/A Dream That Can Last
"Before And After" is a new Neil Young album of re-recordings of 13 songs in one single track. or ... "Neil Covers Neil Unplugged". (see PREVIEW - "Before And After": New Neil Young Re-Recordings Album.)
This is a "live concert" album from the 2023 COASTAL SOLO -- sans audience applause -- a la Rust Never Sleeps style.
Young produced Before And After with Lou Adler. Young said in an earlier statement:
“Songs from my life recently recorded create a music montage with no beginnings or endings.
The feeling is captured, not in pieces but as a whole piece. Soon to your ears and heart and soul — music defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening.”
TRACKLIST:
01 “I’m The Ocean”
02 “Homefires”
03 “Burned”
04 “On The Way Home”
05 “If You Got Love”
06 “A Dream That Can Last”
07 “Birds”
08 “My Heart”
09 “When I Hold You In My Arms”
10 “Mother Earth”
11 “Mr. Soul”
12 “Comes A Time”
13 “Don’t Forget Love”
Labels: album, concert, neil young, solo, tour
by thrasher@PermaLink: 11/17/2023 04:18:00 PM
7 comments
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7 Comments:
Sorry, but I gotta ask... how do I access these digital files? I purchased the album, received a confirmation email with links. But clicking on any link t takes me to the merch store.
I listened to this on YouTube, sounds pretty good. The version of Dream That Can Last was ragged, but quite beautiful as well.
Listening now... On the Way Home is a very strong, dynamic vocal. I'm so used to hearing NY sing this one as a very young man ( starting with Canterbury House '68), it's a little surreal to hear what is recognizably the same voice singing the same song, same basic sound, a lifetime later. Almost uncanny in the specific sense that it's "the same, but different." I suppose that's the point (meaning) of "Before and After".
For the detail-oriented, official release for If You've Got Love is a neat bonus. A Dream that Can Last, in this form, is really quite understated and maybe more touching because of it. The SWA recording (with all its layered harmonies and tinkly reverberations) means a lot to me, but it's good to hear the song this way. In a certain sense, I think it's sadder but more honest.
“Songs from my life recently recorded create a music montage with no beginnings or endings.
The feeling is captured, not in pieces but as a whole piece. Soon to your ears and heart and soul — music defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening.”
Only Neil could conceive an album with such a concept and then make it available in pieces!
Loving what I have heard so far though. Looking forward to hearing the whole piece.
Just like Paul Simon on Seven Psalms "he's so intent on having the tunes being heard as an interconnected set, he didn't index the individual segments on either the CD or digital incarnations. Although the tracks are distinct in melody and even feel, they do all flow together, creating the impression of a single entity"
In classical music, multiple smaller pieces strung together as one continuous piecewould be called a suite and probably no one would think twice about it. (In prog and experimental rock, I think “medley” is sometimes used in a sloppy way when “suite” would be more accurate. For instance, see/hear side 2 of Abbey Road.)
In this case, I’d say musical collage is the most descriptive term. Of course, I can’t give an assessment of the collage as a whole until we’re able to hear it. Previews may seem to contradict the point but make sense as a marketing device.
The presentation that has been touted as a piece that “defies shuffling,” etc. is worth another look at what it’s actually achieving. The sample tracks are a substantial representation of the way this album will flow, so we can get a good idea of it, particularly in comparison to the tour from which the album was built. What we get is basically the Coastal setlist, minus some encores and variable selections (most of these songs were played at all the dates. The big difference, then, is the lack of space between songs. This is actually a major contrast. The Coastal Tour shows were notable for the time Neil took between songs, making his way across the stage to all the various instruments, providing backstory, and bantering with the audience. Allowing for this space was important to him to tell the story he meant to tell, even if only to plan for so many different guitars, pianos, and organs to be implemented. So what does it mean when all of this transitional material is eliminated? The answer’s uncertain, but an effect is nonetheless created. Comfort is traded for immediacy. Although the sonic imprint of the venues remain, the crowd and the concert experience disappear, leaving only the music. Continuity arrives as a gift. When the songs are so neatly lined up alongside each other, no space is left for track divisions; the endings would have come too abruptly. I do hope they will credit each recorded song with its stage of origin. It would be a treat to visualize these theaters morphing in the background as the album progresses.
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