Tonight’s the Night

Yeah that was a quite good album Neil. I was Neil deep in work while listening to it

With seven albums by a single artist, it was clear that not all of them could be world-class. Neil Young has recorded some great music—but that’s not necessarily the case with this album, *Tonight’s The Night*. Instead, this is a good, but by no means outstanding, blues-rock album.
Is it worth listening to? Definitely yes.
Does it belong on a list of the 1001 best albums? Definitely not.

Like 'Rust Never Sleeps' he top and tails this album with a great track. But the sandwich filling is a mixed bag.
The rocky tracks are great.
The steel guitar country songs were boring.
The quality control is also a bit variable. 'Mellow My Mind' is an awful mess. The harmonica playing is excrutiating and he can't seem to hit a note. Any note - not just the usual top end struggles. Was he drunk?
I'd give this a 4 without the skips.

eh, tem umas guitarrada boa esse, hein. dá pra ver que esse mano inspirou uma galerinha BOA dessa leva de country alternativo barulheira atual
bacana demais, mto pica.

В мене зазвичай з дискографією Ніла Янга хіт енд міс, бо певні альбоми прям подобаються, а певні - зовсім ні. Конкретно цей попадає скорше в "подобаються", особливо пісня new mama.
3.5

used have this album on repeat - still worthy

Vibe 4…Lyrics 2. Is this a bit of dentist blues? Idk, it’s…fine.

It's a rough, messy record about grief, recorded in a drunken haze as a memorial for Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry. It's not the best or easiest Neil Young album, sometimes sounding like bad demos with off key vocals and sloppy arrangements, but there's this raw, authentic sound that's haunting. You either dig the total nihilistic grief and those first take jams as genius, or you think it's a drunken mess that should have stayed buried.

Even with the intentional mess, the musicianship shines through. Gotta give major props to Nils Lofgren. His guitar solos, especially on "Speakin' Out", are a lifesaver for Neil's fragile state. Along with Ben Keith's heartbreaking pedal steel, Lofgren grounds the whole funeral party vibe, turning what could've been a disaster into a kind of cult classic.

He can't sing. How are people handing 5's to this? 1/5.

Pretty sad. Neil Young just laid bare emotionally. His mixed feelings about getting "wasted" are interesting. Songworthy though? I don't know. Neil remains very unconventional among the 70s' singer-songwriters. Intense.

Neil Young's "drunken hour" album. A couple of really nice singer-songwriter tunes and some tasty Nils Lofgren slide guitar, but not much to chew on overall.

Tonight's The Night is a decent, if forgettable album. When it comes to Neil Young, he either does hard rock or country and i prefer the former so it is a bit of a shame in my eyes that this album focuses on the latter. That being said there are some hard guitars on offer and even the general country elements aren't bad and were generally pleasant to listen to. My main issue with this album is just how forgettable it is. None of the songs here really do anything that unique or memorable and just tend to blend in with each other. I also found Neil Young's voice a bit weird in places but it was nothing all that bad. This album is not bad, just not very memorable or exciting.
Best Song: Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown
Worst Song: World on a String

I love Neil Young but this is not one of my favorite albums.

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

It’s a little strange to hear a Neil Young album that’s so intentionally rough. Usually, he’s really deliberate about everything, so it’s definitely jarring. Obviously, it’s not super rough, otherwise I’d be way lower than a 4.5, but the intentionality of it sometimes gives way to a more “amateur” feel that just takes me out of the intended vibe of the album, which, to my understanding, appears to be sort of a live funeral for his friends & a bit of an open frustration session for himself. Neil Young’s exhaustion feels noticeable & somewhat palpable, & channeling that exhaustion into a 44 minute album that practically boils down to “shit is tough right now, I need to vent, sorry” is an interesting choice, especially as a commercial release.

There’s only really 3 tracks that don’t quite fit into that frustration; “New Mama”, “Lookout Joe” & “Tired Eyes”, with the first 2 being a sweet interlude about the joy of raising a kid & the very different world a Vietnam vet might have come back to, & the latter being… I dunno, a really sleepy guy’s inability to recall a murder scene? It’s a very blurry track, and probably my weakest one here because of that. The other two are good though. Realistically, I don’t think there’s a bad track here. I’m mostly at a 4.5 because I do think the rawness of this album can feel just a little too amateur at times; obviously, it’s no “The Madcap Laughs” in terms of leaving stuff in that feels intrusive & almost negatively parasocial, but for a Neil Young album where his standards are usually as high as they are, it really does just feel off at times.

I’m obviously bumping it up to a 5, and figuring out exactly why is something that I can only really answer by saying “listen to the album”, but I do think there’s aspects I can point out. I admire the way this album tries to dance around directly complaining for as long as possible; part of it is probably just Neil Young’s self-awareness that even with his own struggles, he’s in a far better spot than most people would be. In the same vein, the way this album chooses to dance around grief while portraying the exhaustion of trying to appear OK is done really well. It’s obviously all there, and it’s done REALLY well on “Tonight’s the Night - Part II” with all the little pauses throughout. At the same time, I can fully acknowledge that a lot of these tracks do end up sounding kinda similar, and even for as much as I liked this album, I found myself zoning out at points. With Neil’s approach putting less importance on everything, it’s very easy to feel less invested, and that does hurt the perception of the album.

Regardless, I think it’s a really interesting take on grief, & I did like practically every track here, save for “Tired Eyes” (& even then, it’s not that bad). I don’t know if it’s an album you can really go back to & play multiple times like that, but I do think it’s worth giving a listen to before you die, even if it’s just once. Something about it feels captivatingly sad. Hence, a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

Wasn't too long till we got another album 🤭!

From spoiling myself with the reviews, he sounds "sad" here. Or maybe I was primed to think that, cause the 5 star reviews make it sound profoundly gloomy/unsettling. Whatever the case, despite hearing what I heard were mostly upbeat tracks, I definitely heard some sadness in the slower songs like "Tired Eyes". It's like he's pleading with the listener to not do things that could end their lives prematurely (3.5-4).

They are speed running giving me Neil Young albums and they started from best to wrist doing it

Not as good as the other Neil Young albums on this list. Pretty average. 3/5

No he guardado ninguna canción, pero sonaba bastante bien. No me ha parecido que hubiera ningún de sus éxitos más conocidos. Espero tener tiempo para revisitarlo en el futuro.

really underwhelming. I thought I was a big Neil Young fan, but I guess he's just a put out a TON of music and the stuff that isn't on Harvest or a greatest hits compilation is really bad.

I can understand this was popular and seen as an important album on Neil Young’s discography with the loss of friends and band mates to heroin, but it doesn’t make for a very compelling listen nowadays. Lots of misery and sadness, but not a lot going on musically beyond some lovely pedal steel to make sure you know these are sad songs. Nothing that would really make me come back for a 2nd listen.