Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Weld

As I mentioned in the review of “Ragged glory”, Neil Young emerged at the end of the '80s from a dark period of continuous changes in direction that ultimately made even the most devoted fans question his future as a musician. After all these stylistic shifts, Neil evidently felt the need for a healthy return to the most visceral and passionate rock, where he is an undisputed master. So, we have Neil releasing albums like “Freedom” and, indeed, “Ragged Glory” that are hailed as the great return of Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

After a visceral album like “Ragged Glory”, a tour was organized in America's arenas right during the period when the first Gulf War began. In response, Neil Young & Crazy Horse took the stage preceded by groups from the already exploded grunge scene, such as Social Distortion and Sonic Youth. The audience, initially, was not prepared for such a sonic assault and booed the support bands, unaware of what Neil and company had in store for them. A white flag was displayed on stage from the beginning to the end of the concerts, creating a rather tense atmosphere, partly because Neil had recently lost his mother and because the musicians had to watch the madness unfolding in the Persian Gulf on CNN. It is also in response to these events that the group delivered a series of concerts that are true assaults of decibels, with volumes blasting in the face of everything that was happening. The tracks are only sixteen on this double CD (initially triple, as the first prints also included a third disc with a nearly forty-minute track composed entirely of the feedback from song endings), but the duration of the pieces varies from the 5 minutes of “Powderfinger” and the apocalyptic reinterpretation of “Blowin’ In The Wind” (one of the most shocking covers I've ever heard, almost akin to what Hendrix did at Woodstock with the American anthem) to the 14 minutes of “Like A Hurricane”, with the others all ranging between nine and ten minutes. Among the peaks, in addition to the three aforementioned tracks, are definitely “Crime In The City”, which here is made to explode compared to the relatively soft version from “Freedom”, and especially “Love To Burn”, “Rockin’ In The Free World”, and “Love And Only Love”, all featuring long and furious guitar improvisations between Neil and Poncho Sampedro.

On stage, Neil seems possessed, constantly moving up and down with that Old Black with the distortion permanently turned up, and even the Crazy Horse give it their all in a series of shows that will break decibel records for a rock concert for quite some time. There are some classic tracks, from a sensational “Cortez the Killer” with Neil, as usual, seeming to fall into a trance during his long electric solos, to “Powderfinger”, with a long initial distortion, to “Cinnamon Girl” and “Mansion On The Hill”. The album closes with the usual heartfelt (and sad) “Tonight’s The Night” (respect for Bruce & Danny), slow and menacing, with sudden explosions (almost noise), then the group bids farewell with an electric version of “Roll Another Number” which, to stay on theme, comes from the same album “Tonight’s The Night”.

For those who want to experience the thrill of an electric sonic assault and for those who don’t want to hear Neil Young only acoustically. This album is one of the greatest expressions of what rock wants to be when it needs to be abrasive.