Neil Young
After The Gold Rush

Dreams of apocalyptic scenarios where Mother Nature, robbed and violated, flees to other worlds ("After The Gold Rush"), curses laden with indignation against the bigoted, racist, and murderous obstinacy of the "new southerners" ("Southern Man"), desolate scenes of growing poverty amidst the fake glitter of cities ("Don't Let It Bring You Down"), disturbed and troubled minds that find the only salvation in love ("Only Love Can Break Your Heart"), even purely sensual ("When You Dance You Can Really Love"), yet at the same time suffer from the incommunicability that hinders any relationship ("I Believe In You")... in short, it feels like being in the middle of 2005, and yet all of this is from an album of 1970. Prophetic? Not quite: for Neil Young, the gold rush is over or about to end, as the title suggests. A turn towards a new world is near, towards a more harmonious and humane relationship with nature; the great illusion of the hippie communes is still an intact myth. Thirty-five years later, with hindsight, we can say that at the time, the great race for devastation and looting was just beginning, and Neil Young would have been more farsighted if he had titled the album "BEFORE The Gold Rush." But demanding lucid projections on the historical evolution of the world from an artist, even one as hypersensitive as Neil Young, would be excessive, given that most of the time even professional historians do not get it right. It is better to take "After The Gold Rush" for its musical and poetic worth: a fully successful work, yet a product of its time, filled with illusions destined to fade.

 The great Canadian singer-songwriter, now embraced by the vast stretches of the USA's West Coast, had just released one of his most inspired rock albums, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," the first masterpiece in a long series, but instead of resting on this model, he decisively veered towards the folk ballad, while still retaining the support of his faithful band, Crazy Horse. What emerged was a new masterpiece, which, however, would be overshadowed by the worldwide success of the subsequent "Harvest," to which (for me) it has nothing to envy; indeed, it is slightly preferred due to the absence of the two "symphonic" tracks that weigh down "Harvest" like a foreign appendage. But these are personal judgments; it's better to move on to the substance, which consists of little rock and much folk, the latter quite varied. Remnants of the furious and obsessive strumming from the previous album are found in "Southern Man," almost to emphasize the grim curse launched against those who hide their racist and criminal tendencies behind a fake bigoted respectability, and also in "When You Dance You Can Really Love," which features a whimsical and biting guitar solo. Neil Young's voice is highly variable, often doubled by the counterpoint of his band in the more sunny tracks, like the typical country ballads "Tell Me Why" and "Till The Morning Comes." It becomes an acid cry of anger in "Southern Man," while in the beautiful "After The Gold Rush," it takes on a poignant trembling falsetto, wonderfully accompanied by the simple and intense notes of a piano. "Birds" is also an inspired and delicate dialogue between piano and voice, but set on a more airy and serene theme, quite distant from the quiet nightmare atmosphere of the title track. "Don't Let It Bring You Down," "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," and "I Believe In You," despite notable differences, maintain the structure of the country-folk ballad, enhanced by a richer and more substantial sound, in which the imprint of the entire band is felt. There is room for a cover of a country classic, "Oh, Lonesome Me" by Don Gibson, from which Neil Young manages to draw unexpectedly rich and melodic sounds, seeming to dispel the cliché of rather dull and flat country music.

An exquisite album to rediscover, perhaps especially for those who only know Neil Young's "Harvest" and its magical "spirit of the land," which they will find here as well, even more pristine.