Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Re-actor

Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Re-actor

For the polished official critics, “Re-actor” is one of the less successful works from the fortunate partnership between Neil Young and his most famous backing band, as well as one of the stages in the Canadian's calvary during the 80s. However, a careful listen reveals that, despite the album's polish being below masterpieces like “Zuma” or “Rust Never Sleeps”, the work done by Crazy Horse is of excellent quality. Sampedro and company excellently support a neurotic and unstable Young as rarely happened in his tumultuous career. The well-known family problems (the birth of a second child with cerebral palsy and his wife's cancer) lead him to conceive an album as a release valve, and this reflects on the sound: boastful, acidic, a sort of “heavy punk”. Therefore, listening to “Re-actor” is truly intriguing, given that Crazy Horse have never sounded so abrasive. Only the Stray Gators managed to do the same, accompanying Young in the fabulous, though underrated, “Time Fades Away”. Particularly, the rhythm section slices through the usual guitar barrage, carving out a prominent role, thanks especially to the pulsating bass lines of Billy Talbot.

Some moments are worth gold: “Surfer Joe and Moe The Sleaze” is the classic electric assault at breakneck speed, yet derailed towards almost quicksilverian shores. “Shots” is then an absolute masterpiece: a much more accomplished “Like a Hurricane”, forged with a disturbing poetic and musical urgency and enhanced by a stunning Young on lead guitar. “Southern Pacific” is also excellent, offering a much more venomous version of the usual country-rock script. But Young also shows an attention to the new musical developments of the time: in “Rapid Transit”, Crazy Horse gallops towards uncharted new wave prairies, launching the wall of guitar sound towards funk empyreans in the style of Talking Heads.

The minimalism of certain lyrics – famous is that of “T-Bone” – is another step in Neil's path towards the conscious destruction of his own myth. However, this somewhat undermines the value of the album, given the historical importance of lyrics in the economy of Young's albums. Alongside a handful of less successful episodes, this explains the 4 stars given to “Re-actor”: a work nonetheless essential for understanding an artist unparalleled in taking risks, in pushing his artistic discourse to the extreme consequences with a clarity that still leaves one in awe.