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LISTEN TO IT #95: HOWDY, MA!
Jul. 18th, 2014 08:31 amNeil Young has always had a reputation for doing whatever he wants to do, regardless of what fans or his own record company expect. In the last ten years, he’s had a tendency to push his limits with gimmicky projects like rock operas (Greendale), political screeds (Living With War), echo overloads (Le Noise), a concept album about electric cars (Fork In The Road) or an album of classic American murder ballads (Americana).
So naturally his new LP is a covers album recorded in a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth. Owned by Jack White.
As you’d expect, the sound quality is the equivalent of an old 78rpm record or Alan Lomax’s Folkways recordings. And sure, it’s another gimmick. But the thing about Young is that more often than not he employs gimmicks that work to his strengths, and this is certainly the case here. Young has always been good enough to get by with nothing more than a guitar, harmonica and voice. And this gives him s chance to run through some songs by some of his favorite songwriters, including Phil Ochs, Bert Jansch, Gordon Lightfoot, Willie Nelson, the Everly Brothers, Tim Hardin and (of course) Dylan and Springsteen.
And it all works, generally. Even the spoken-word letters to his mom give the album an old-timey feel to it.
That said, some people may find it hard to listen to more than once, depending on how big a fan they are of old-timey vinyl. As Neil Young music projects go it’s interesting, but it’s not essential.
Either way, it’s just like Young to put out a no-fi record like this around the same time he’s also starting up PonoMusic, a digital music service/player intended to make digital music a better listening experience than those crap MP3s you kids listen to today (though there’s some doubt as to whether Pono’s proposed 192kHz/24-bit audio can accomplish that).
Anyway, listen to this.
Straight to vinyl,
This is dF
So naturally his new LP is a covers album recorded in a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph vinyl recording booth. Owned by Jack White.
As you’d expect, the sound quality is the equivalent of an old 78rpm record or Alan Lomax’s Folkways recordings. And sure, it’s another gimmick. But the thing about Young is that more often than not he employs gimmicks that work to his strengths, and this is certainly the case here. Young has always been good enough to get by with nothing more than a guitar, harmonica and voice. And this gives him s chance to run through some songs by some of his favorite songwriters, including Phil Ochs, Bert Jansch, Gordon Lightfoot, Willie Nelson, the Everly Brothers, Tim Hardin and (of course) Dylan and Springsteen.
And it all works, generally. Even the spoken-word letters to his mom give the album an old-timey feel to it.
That said, some people may find it hard to listen to more than once, depending on how big a fan they are of old-timey vinyl. As Neil Young music projects go it’s interesting, but it’s not essential.
Either way, it’s just like Young to put out a no-fi record like this around the same time he’s also starting up PonoMusic, a digital music service/player intended to make digital music a better listening experience than those crap MP3s you kids listen to today (though there’s some doubt as to whether Pono’s proposed 192kHz/24-bit audio can accomplish that).
Anyway, listen to this.
Straight to vinyl,
This is dF
