Neil Young (1968) (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Neil Young

Artist name: Neil Young

Year: 1968

Number of discs: one

Label: Reprise Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Distinguishing characteristics: “Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it

Buy it on Ebay: $19.50

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Though I’m a Neil Young fan, I don’t think I’ve listened to this record, his solo debut, very many times. I don’t recognize any of the songs on it by name, but I assume that a few of them will be familiar to me when I listen.

Here are the other Neil Young records that I’ve reviewed so far:

Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield (1969): 5/5

Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970): 5/5

Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More (1970): 4/5

4 Way Street by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1971): 5/5

Harvest (1972): 5/5

So Far by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1974): 4/5

What I expected

I think this will be mostly acoustic, mostly folk rock and country rock.

What it was actually like

This record was mostly not acoustic at all, with the notable exception of The Last Trip to Tulsa, which was a rambling and somewhat pointless track that lasted almost nine and a half minutes.

Besides that one, a few of the songs were pretty boring, such as Here We Are in the Years; If I Could Have Her Tonight, which had really bad vocals that were over-produced; and The Old Laughing Lady, which had an orchestral backing that I did not like at all.

Other parts were more country than I expected, such as The Emperor of Wyoming – and also, Wyoming is the most underrated US state for physical beauty.

I did recognize one song, The Loner, which was more of an electric and psychedelic rock song than I expected, and I thought it was great. I also liked I’ve Been Waiting for You a lot, especially its guitar solo.

Grade

4/5: would listen again