POLL RESULTS: Psychedelic Pill - The Last Neil Young Album You Really Cared About

The Last Neil Young Album You Really Cared About?
(Click link for full results)
This past weekend, we posted a poll question asking what "The Last Neil Young Album You Really Cared About?"

The poll was inspired by a question posted recently on the audiophile forum Steve Hoffman Forum which generated quite a bit of discussion on Neil Young's continuing musical relevancy relative to his earlier works in the 1970's.

Here at Thrasher's Wheat, we received over 600 votes thus far and numerous comments, such as the one that follows below. But first, here's a breakdown:

Psychedelic Pill (2012) 37.33%
The Monsanto Years (2015) 14.15%
Le Noise (2010) 8.4%
Prairie Wind (2005) 7.15%
Greendale (2003) 6.84%
Silver & Gold (2000) 5.44%
Living With War (2006) 5.13%
Chrome Dreams II (2007) 4.04%
Storytone (2014) 3.27%

(Also, note that when we've done this sort of polling before we have always eliminated compilation albums like Decade or Greatest Hits. So, we removed Live/Comp albums from the listing like Fillmore, Cellar Door, etc. Also, removed Archives which had the most votes of the Live/Comp albums. This did statistically invalidate the poll by removing options after opening the poll but we wanted to keep this going and not re-start. As far as we can tell, the removal of Live/Comp albums made no difference in the rankings of Top 5.)

A comment by Alan:

Most Rock Stars do nothing in their later years of much interest. Not so for Neil Young.

There is compelling music on Monsanto years, great guitar riffs. And he didn't ravage his vocal cords like Dylan did by smoking cigarettes. The music he has done just in the last 10 years would be a very respectable career total for most artists. There are are great guitar passages on the album. People Want to Hear About Love. Listen to it and then tell me it doesnt ROCK!. Neil Young has a Fiery Intensity, even in his seemingly mellow tunes like Wolf Moon. A heartbreaking ode to Earth (and moon, in a small way), deeper and more to the point than After the Gold Rush. He has focused and stepped up to smack down the Bad Guys just when we need him most! Neil's Energy, which he has now focused on the dark corporations ruining the food supply, Global Warming, Environmental Destruction and the corruption inherent to Citizen United….

If you can't dig it, you are probably one of the millions of Americans who are Apathetic politically and uninformed on the real undercurrents of who has power and who gets the money… meanwhile, the middle class bleeds money to make up for lost taxation on Corporations, the poor starve and get ignored, all so GE can get a "Minus 11%" tax rate while carcinogens are pumped into the food supply at alarmingly skyrocketing rates. Meanwhile, the FDA and Monsanto share a pool of employees between them, so everyone's needs get met…. except for the people who Eat the carcinogenic crap they are forcing the masses to eat. Its almost like they don't CARE if a large segment of society dies off.

Neil has become THE REBEL ROCKSTAR in an AGE OF APATHY. He is the guy who never sold out. He is the Bernie Sanders of Hippie Grunge. We need a Cheerleader like him to get folks to notice they are getting Screwed by the System. In the 1950's, Corporations paid 50% tax. They have paid lobbyists and politicians to reduce their taxes to nothing, for the majority of corporations in the USA. And even though Corps receive 99% of "welfare money", ALL we hear about is lazy poor people, who actually receive just 1% of "welfare" money. Wake up y'all. Neil Young will give you a head start on sifting through the Bullshit we have all been believing about just society in the USA. Thanks Neil. See you Sunday. I wonder what he will do next. I am very optimistic, as usual, having been following him closely several decades.

Alan in Seattle.

Thanks Alan and everyone who voted in the poll!

Now go and drop that Pill and let it ring!

So what do you think? What was the last Neil Young album that you really cared about?



Thanks for voting and let us know what you think!

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The Last Neil Young Album You Really Cared About? | Steve Hoffman Forum

Neil Young
Interview on Norwegian TV - 2005
A question: What was the last Neil Young album that you really cared about?

This provocative question was posted recently on the audiophile forum Steve Hoffman Forum by Musician95616:

Artists with long careers and large catalogs (Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Paul McCartney) generally face a challenge with latter day releases matching the quality of their classic albums.

For Neil, what was the last album of his that you really cared about? I will admit that "Storytone" left me cold, as well as "A Letter Home" and the majority of his more recent albums. In fact, I might say that although "Psychedelic Pill" was an exception for me, Neil Young hasn't really made an album I like since "Ragged Glory" and "Harvest Moon".

And -- you might imagine -- lots of folks have lots of opinions. The thread is already up to over 12 pages with opinions going back to the 1970's with Rust Never Sleeps right up to Neil Young's latest The Monsanto Years.

In our somewhat unscientific assessment, it would seem that a consensus of sorts centers around Psychedelic Pill with Crazy Horse from 2012 being a benchmark for many. Not unreasonable with many finding albums like A Letter Home (2014) and Storytone (2014) being less than compelling and somewhat inaccessible.

Here's a somewhat typical comment on Steve Hoffman Forum by tolkev:

The last Neil record I really cared about was Harvest Moon, but I saw him this summer and the show fantastic!

His band was excellent & did a great setlist of classic stuff. He started solo acoustic, then did full band country and finished with an onslaught of rock. The band was very versatile and could do authentic country and full-on Crazy Horse. The sound was great his voice and guitar were top notch.Totally clear and dead center in the mix. As for the new material, the Monsanto stuff was when he really let loose and rocked hardest and although the lyrics lack his best craft being a bit to direct repeating corporate names ad nauseam and basically being a straight out, blunt bitchfest, He and the band tore into them and lit it up like they were kids with a boombox at a keg party standing around a bonfire.

A great show!

So what do you think? What was the last Neil Young album that you really cared about?



Thanks for voting and let us know what you think!

UPDATE: See comment below regarding the removal of Live/Compilation albums from choices.

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peace & love. stay calm. no fear. think for yourself. use discernment. recognize the illusion. ask questions. be the wheat. prepare for the big shift and keep on rockin' in the free world.

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The Americana-ness of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Americana

Crazy Horse & Neil Young
Frank "Pancho" Sampedro, Bill Talbot, Ralph Molina
Musicares Honors Paul McCartney
Los Angeles, CA - 2/10/12

After what seems to have been a long couple of days here at TW, it would seem that we more fully appreciate the "Americana-ness" of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Americana album.

So what the heck does that mean you might ask?

Well, if you've been following our comment threads lately, you might understand. If not, well, you may have saved yourself some time -- or depending on your point of view -- missed quite a bit of entertainment. Maybe it's just the summer heat that's getting to folks?

To summarize if just tuning in, last week we decontructed a rather harsh review of Americana on The Herald-Review by Tim Cain. The reviewer found Americana to be a "self parody because it is too rich, too perfect, too comical to be anything but a parody."

Some agreed with our take on the review and others did not. Fine. This was followed by our posting of an equal opportunity dissenting opinion (which we do indeed welcome), of a thoughtful, well considered rebuttal by Babbo.

So we included a poll asking if folks really thought that Americana "Drifts into Self Parody" of a Neil Young & Crazy Horse album?



And what did we find?

Interestingly, it seems that the majority think that no, Americana is not a "Self Parody" because it captures Neil Young & Crazy Horse in all of their raw, ragged glory. Between those who say Americana is not a "Self Parody" and those indifferent, it seems about 95% of folks are OK or neutral with Americana. Only 5% of voters thought Americana is a "Self Parody" because it is "too rich, too perfect, too comical to be anything but a parody." (Could this contingent be the dreaded "4% Club" that emerged after Fork in the Road? Let's hope not since they seem to be growing.)

[NOTE: If you're one of those numbers add up to nothin' types then just read these often heartfelt ordinary people comments on our Facebook page ThrashersWheatNeverSleeps (74).]

In other words, the poll results and positive comments seem to be fairly representative of the mythical "Americana" itself, i.e., passions on the extreme fringes of the Neil-love and Neil-hate camps are unrepresentative while it is the great middle ground of Neil-moderates who are the true silent majority. In other words, the Neil Young fan base is reflective of "Americana" itself where the discourse is dominated by the hype/wind/noise machines on the fringes which is unrepresentative of the true mainstream "Americana". And those mainstream or "ordinary Neil fans" have stood and been counted and they think Neil & The Horse's Americana is perfectly OK.

So where do we go from here? Between a very analytical comment by Greg "A Friend Of Yours" and several other supportive comments like Sandy H's giving us a sanity check along with the poll results, we think we're good for another 15 years of "Separating the wheat from the chaff".

Lastly, here's a comment by setlistthief:

I've just put "Americana" on heavy rotation so I've only formed a few initail impressions. I hear "Powderfinger" in a couple of those folk songs. "High Flyin' Bird" is a NYCH classic that's going to be a live scorcher. "Wayfaring Stranger" is a gorgeous "Boxcar"-like acoustic piece. And in many ways, the remaining songs remind me of Dylan's "Love and Theft." Right now, however, the album doesn't flow for me, but I may get there eventually after a few more listens.

Maybe I won't be listening to "Americana" next year at this time, but right now I'm absolutely intrigued by what Neil's done this time around.

Honestly, I thought Neil would never work with Crazy Horse again. Glad I was mistaken.

So how about it "The John Q. General Ordinary Public of Americana" and Rusties of the world? What do you guys really think?

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