Ragged Glory

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

Dismissed the album until yesterday. I love all of his 70s work but 70s bands still making music in the 90s reeked of aged out bands trying to stay relevant (see Rolling Stones). Well, I guess I was wrong because this album is great.

I really have a poor response to youngs voice. The saving grace here is the material which is above par. Somehow a regression of form is an improvement.

Some nice moments but oh my god Neil, these songs do not need to be 10 mins.
Thought the final track was stellar tho!

Better than Coldplay

The Godfather of Grunge proves once again why he’s one of the greats. The way Crazy Horse is able to extend these songs, some to over ten minutes, without them ever seeming stretched thin is impressive. Neil’s guitar absolutely shreds here. Favorites were Country Home, F*!#in Up, Over And Over, Love To Burn, and Days That Used To Be.

lange Jams, verzerrte Gitarren, viel Raum, wenig Überraschung. Genau darin liegt aber auch das Problem – es ist solide, aber unspektakulär, fast schon stoisch im eigenen Groove. Ein ehrliches, raues Album ohne besondere Höhepunkte.

I didn’t like the opening track, Country Home, at all but after that I enjoyed every track but maybe a few of them went on a bit too long.

Top Track - Mother Earth ( Natural Anthem)

I want to get off the Crazy Horse.

Please.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

One’s enjoyment of this album will depend on how much you end up liking the pace / structure here, which leans less towards the lyricism Neil Young is typically known for (though it’s still quite well-written, just more simple), & leans more towards the atmosphere created by its extended jam session-style solos. These tracks are all pretty long as a result, creating an air around most tracks that could usually be trimmed down. However, I never found myself quite as bothered by it as I’d normally be. Part of it is trusting Neil Young from all the albums we’ve gotten from him so far, part of it is being 894 albums in & being much used to longer songs, & part of it is just from the joy / energy that seems to be present in those longer solos. The percussion could do a bit more, but the guitar work here is generally really strong, albeit slightly overreliant on reverb & holding onto certain notes & then panning around.

The only track that really bothered me was “Farmer John”, as it just feels too plain without evolving in any way throughout the track to warrant its inclusion here. The only track that kinda broke me due to its length was “Love to Burn”, since the last third of the 10-minute track just kinda treads water & repeats verses in a way that doesn’t meaningfully add anything. Those two tracks are why I’m at a 4.5 – the rest of them are all good to great in my book, with my favorites probably being “Days That Used to Be” & “Love and Only Love”; the former is just a really good critique of letting your physical possessions define & drive your happiness compared to the simple life of the past, & the latter is just super fun to do air guitar to despite the full 10 minutes. It helps that the message feels a bit needed.

Overall, I did enjoy this one. I do think it could’ve been trimmed down, especially on some of its more meandering moments, and I think the floor here is very easily a 3. I might go down to a 4 someday if some of these tracks just feel too long on future relistens in ways that dilute the actual experience, but for now, I feel like it warrants a bump up to a 5, if only because I liked a lot of the messaging here & the guitar work, while a bit of a two or three-trick pony, is just effective enough to vibe out to. Is it a grunge album? No, not really. It’s got grunge elements, but it’s very much a Neil Young album with a slightly more underground feel to it, and it’s a mixture that works well enough for me. Hence, a 4.5 bumped up to a 5.

Good proto-grunge from the father of the genre. Just way too long. A few really good tracks do not make it earn its length

I don’t like no Young and I wasn’t going to listen to this album. It was much better than I expected, but I would call it grunge.

Nope.

Just don’t get Neil Young….voice is just so whiny. Waaaay too many of his albums on this list for my taste.

1

Probably the worst Neil album on here, and yet it is still a magnificient showing that sounds much less produced than his other work.

8/10 [DROP]

I honestly did not find anything special in this and don’t see anything worth coming back to

Not Neil Young's best, but I'm always happy to listen to him play for an hour

I do like this album. But then I listen like a lot of Neil Young albums. Whether this is one of 1001 albums you should hear before you die I don’t know. How could I?

This is from the era when Neil was the Grandfather of Grunge. It’s hard to think he was only 45 when this was made. Way younger than the surviving grungesters are now. Younger than me even. Cos this is what we thought was old age.

If you want to dig into this era go Freedom, or Sleeps With Angels or the live album Weld. Many of the songs here are on Weld and the versions are better.

But this album is both Ragged and Glorious and that’s how I like my Rock n Roll.

No thank you. Lotta potato talk. Feels a bit like a more country Steely Dan. Some of the songs sounded almost like R.E.M. when I wasn't paying attention (but when I paid attention closer I thought "nope"). The persistent ABAB rhyme scheme is kind of endearing because it's the kind of lyrics I would write. But I'm not on the 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die list, am I?

On one hand I'm impressed that someone who really can't sing has released this many albums and is featured on the many 1001 album lists over the years. On the other hand, the same thing can be said about Bob Dylan......

70s folky Neil Young is iets meer m'n ding, maar dit is helemaal prima garage rock. Wel -1 voor Farmer John en de laatste track, wat een zeiknummers.