Ragged Glory

My favorite work of his from his later era. He sounds as good as he did 3 decades before he made this. It slots in really well in the Grunge era as well, with all the noise coming from it. I will say that it feels like a bit of an overindulgent album from him. Songs are all really long and there is a lot of room for solo's and feedback loops and the like. Not that I care or mind, I like Neil Young and artists their 20th-something work is almost always just made for the fans.

Fairly middling, but fairly rocking. A 2.5 really, but rounding up for general love of Neil.

this dude does the most random, BAD, shit.

way to try to tarnish your legacy, Neil!

Generic country/dad rock hybrid album. I don't see how this is grunge. Mid. 2*

Some lovely songs and singing on this, Country Home and Days that Used to Be at the highlights that I remember. Lovely work. Some of the instrumental sections are nice, but I'd rather Neil be singing, and I can't be doing with the grunge-y guitar, does nout for me.

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Nisam ljubitelj Younga svakako a pogotovo kad sam vidjela godinu znala sam da će ovo biti nešto bezvezno i ni blizu dostojno liste koja se ovako zove. Pogodila sam sve.

More than a couple of times I thought "Hey, this instrumental bit is really nice and interesting and well played and well produced - maybe I'm a Neil Young guy again!"

Then those vocals come in like a teenage cat whose voice is breaking at the same as it is scratching its claws on a blackboard.

Will take Country House over Country Home any day.

This was a solid album. I felt more alt-country or southern rock in some spots than grunge, maybe it’s the style of singing or the lyrical content. But there is some range and those aren’t necessarily negatives.

On some level, there may have been expectations set for my listening to this record. After all, I thoroughly enjoyed Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere over a year and a half ago, and Ragged Glory saw Neil and Crazy Horse revisit that record's heavy rock leanings. That comparison proved apt here, as Frank "Poncho" Sampedro's riff-heavy guitar playing and interplay with Neil were just as good as Danny Whitten's. Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina were still as tight a rhythm section as ever, as everyone came together for these exquisite extended jams. I had that feeling going in from checking out "Fuckin' Up" after hearing Pearl Jam cover it live, and the rest of the album was just as fun and infectious. Hell, they even get away with covering Don and Dewey's "Farmer John" and lifting the live guitar recording from a Farm Aid performance for "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)". That latter track is an especially potent way to send off the record.

All in all, I had as good a time with Ragged Glory as I did with Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. It's another winning record from the iconic collaboration that is Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

This feels like such a bummer of an album. It's sad in a way I can't quite describe. It also felt really samesy.

Nostalgiskt fast jag inte hört den förut

The music rips. My first impression was that Crazy Horse was carrying the shit out of Neil on this album, but then one element I repeatedly ended up enjoying is how the soft and tender themes in the lyrics contrast with the grungy/heavy instrumentation. Even if the vocals aren't always perfectly sung, I do think Neil is the right man for such a combination.

Just don't talk to me about Farmer John.

Standouts: Country Home • Over and Over • Love to Burn • Mansion on the Hill • Love and Only Love

I actually enjoy this more than Rocking in the Free World. It represents the best of Neil Young’s “grunge” era. And ya, it’s a Neil Young album so I’m giving it 5 stars

A fantastic garage country(?) album, from, quite possibly the best people for the job. Crazy Horse were a band prior to collaborating with Neil Young, but it truly does feel like he completes them. His shaky voice, and damaged songs pair beautifully with Crazy Horse's looseness and paradoxical intensity. They play guitars that sound like burning sawdust while completely locked into some kind of groove that is *perpetually* falling apart. Ragged Glory is the album that galvanized Neil Young's comeback on Freedom into a string of several great albums which would define his '90s. On Ragged Glory, Neil Young's game was to get Crazy Horse sloppier, louder and perhaps even more cathartic than ever. I recall hearing a good old fashioned rock and roll myth that an earthquake struck during the last recording session for Ragged Glory, but they were playing with such volume and intensity that it could be neither heard nor felt. I have no idea if this is true; but it does prepare you for the attitude of this album. This is *really* rootsy country rock, played with building leveling force. I will say that I haven't clicked with every song here, but the overall quality is pretty incredible. Hearing Crazy Horse lock in on some improv on most of these songs is also a real treat, they have a soloing language all their own. One minor weird thing, I think the main riff on Over and Over got lifted (as tribute) by Sonic Youth for Diamond Sea. I can't prove this, but the two bands have played together, and if you listen to them, the resemblance is striking. Anyways, I love this as a true blue "Rock" record. Even if I haven't clicked with everything, the philosophy, sound, energy (and honestly most of the songs here) are pretty fantastic.

Here’s Neil Young album #4 - just two more to go. Sometimes this project feels like an endurance test.

But that’s not fair - these guys are good musicians, and it’s enjoyable in that way that you’d enjoy a country rock band if you were several pints in at a noisy bar with some friends on a hot summer night. It does feel like a live band, with some buzziness and long instrumental jams. Sure, this is a great album. But I probably should be experiencing it with beer rather than coffee.

Not really a great effort from Neil, I'm afraid. It's fine but not at all essential listening.

I've had plenty of good experiences with Neil's other albums on this list, so I hope this one's equally good. Immediately, this strikes me as different from other Neil Young albums; it's his rawest and loudest record on this list. While After the Gold Rush was mostly folky and political, this album is a torrent of guitar noise linked with introspective lyrics on songs like "F*!$in' Up" and "Love to Burn". And it's a great album. Young has a surprising flexibility across genres from acoustic country- folk to garagey alt-rock- and his emotive songwriting shines through on all of them. I can't help but like his signature vocal delivery and lyricism in all its, well, "Ragged Glory". This is my favorite of all the electric Young albums(with Crazy Horse) on the list.

This album is ranked #14 of 22 albums for 1990. Other 1990 albums rated by me:
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm(2/22)-5
Heaven or Las Vegas(3/22)-4
Bossanova(4/22)-5
Fear of a Black Planet(5/22)-5
Shake Your Money Maker(6/22)-2
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got(7/22)-4
The La's(12/22)-3
En-Tact(22/22)-1

I am a Neil Young enthusiast and I can acknowledge this album is not exactly "essential." But it is really fucking good. And well-timed; Ragged Glory came out right before the grunge explosion and it helped solidify Neil's status as the "godfather of grunge." This album also set the pace for the next few decades of what a Neil Young album would sound like -- fuzzed out guitars and warbly vocals backed by a killer rhythm section. There's not much else I really could ask for.

Man I hate his voice. This isn't as bad as his usually whiny BS but it's still not good. 2/5.