Customer Reviews

Harvest Moon

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Neil Young has explored lots of musical territory and taken some interesting chances, but in my own view as a longtime fan, he's at his strongest when he's at his most acoustic and mellow. The "godfather of grunge" was also the guy who invented "unplugged."

For those whose tastes match my own, _Harvest_ is likely to rank as a favorite among Young's many albums. (And longtime listeners will recall that at one time Young had planned a follow-up to _Harvest_ to be entitled _Homegrown_. Two cuts intended for this album -- "Star of Bethlehem" and "The Deep Forbidden Lake" -- appeared on _Decade_.)

_Harvest Moon_ is a conscious attempt to recall, celebrate, and go beyond that earlier album, and it reassembles all of the key personnel: the beloved Stray Gators, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, even arranger Jack Nitzche. (Even one or two songs from the old LP are deliberately invoked: "You and Me," a spare and lovely duet with the late and sorely missed Nicolette Larson, makes explicit reference to "Old Man.")

But Young didn't exactly stand still during the two decades between the two releases. _Harvest Moon_ is a much more mature and satisfying collection -- better written, better performed, better produced. Young's lyrics are wistfully evocative; his voice and guitar are clear, solid, and strong.

I could carry on at length about my favorites ("Unknown Legend," "War of Man," and "You and Me,") but I won't try to describe them. I'll just say that anyone who loved _Harvest_ will probably love this one even more.

It's autumn, and the greatness of this album compels me to comment on it. Yes, this is a mellow, folky, almost country-ish offering-and I'm convinced that's what Neil does best. As good of an album as Harvest was, Harvest Moon is decidedly better, even though it was made years after Harvest. The concept album shows great maturity, not to mention some of the most beautiful folk ballads I've ever heard. There is also a lot of great harmony, featuring James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Neil is in your living room reflecting on past friends and lovers, and the beauty in this life. A great album to snuggle up to with your loved one on a crisp, late autumn evening. This is timeless music that will endure through the ages. For anyone who has ever loved anything Neil has done or folk music, you owe it to yourself to add this to your collection.
P.S.- Nov. 2007: I just wanted to comment on a couple of people who said this album was too slick and overproduced. I just don't see it. One person commented on how the harmonies seemed too obviously overdubbed. First of all, I don't think it's uncommon for harmonies to be overdubbed. That's really only apparent on "One of These Days"- I know what he's talking about. It was an intended effect- and it worked. Superbly.

When in 1992 Neil Young declared his intention to revisit HARVEST,critics waited with sharpened pens to deride the end product as a mere carbon copy of the original masterpiece.How dissapointed they were!HARVEST MOON takes the same country boy from HARVEST;making him older and wiser but still astonished by love of a woman and of nature.Old friends participate:James Taylor,Jack Nitzche, Nicolette Larson,Linda Ronstadt and the Stray Gators.There is classic Young on this release: UNKNOWN LEGEND,DREAMIN' MAN,OLD KING,HARVEST MOON and FROM HANK TO HENDRIX.Young paints a vivid picture of rural America in HARVEST MOON;many images can also apply to my territory,Australia. There is a cost to living free,but it is not unpayable.Do not look to HARVEST MOON as simply a HARVEST sequel;it is an equal;a version for the 90s and beyond.

To me, Neil Young is two artists; one is the hard rockin' rock-god backed by Crazy Horse. The guy Pearl Jam cite as the "Godfather of Grunge".

The other is a gentle, introspective and philosophical poet.

This album is probably the latters masterpiece.

Sure, the name was obviously used as a way of enticing old fans of the massivly successful "Harvest" into buying this, but "Harvest Moon" is no cheap rip-off sequel. Instead, we have a charming collection of accousticly flavoured songs that you find yourself singing along to.

These are songs about times past, old friends lost, past glories and the dreams of youth. These are melancholy testaments to days gone by, and there's a quiet sadness flowing throughout the album. Fear of getting old? Memories of the past getting you down? Sure, it's here. But also a certain careful optimism about the future.

More than a collection of songs, this is also a poetic masterpiece and a modern American classic. One you really ought to have in your collection.

When I get a new album, I typically listen to it once, then put it away for a few days or weeks. If I *really* like it, I might listen to it again the next day.

When I got "Harvest Moon", I listened to it three times in a row, without pause.

The album is... simply beautiful. It sets a mood from the opening notes, and continues it for the next fifty minutes. Very rarely do an album's lyrical and musical content harmonize so well. Topics include weariness, lost loves, fond memories, old friends, times gone by.

This was THE album that got me into Neil Young. If you've heard and liked any one song off of "Harvest Moon", you won't be disappointed by the rest of the album.

...I think of American Recordings by Johnny Cash, The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen, A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band by Rich Mullins and the Ragamuffin Band, and this one--Neil Young's Harvest Moon. These are the four CD's (of popular music, as Amazon calls it) in my entire collection that do not have a weak song on the disc. Harvest Moon is the most laid back of the four (it is aptly named: it is the perfect CD for a lonely Autumn evening).

This CD joins the symphonies of Robert Simpson, Harvest Home by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, and the two Appalachian albums put out by Yo-Yo Ma and his crew as some of my top listening material for the Fall.

Songs like Harvest Moon and You and Me are the perfect songs for reflecting about what Poe would call the "days of yore." I know this is a personal interpretation, but these songs bring to mind the seemingly endless Autumns of my teenage years. With this music on, I can picture clearly riding a ferris wheel or a tilt-a-whirl with the numerous ghosts of girlfriends past.

Old King brings to mind my own great dog--Jake--now dead and gone for more than a decade.

Natural Beauty is the one Great song on the disc. Its haunting melancholy beauty tinged with just the slightest bit of hope exemplifies the whole effect of this album. Too bad this song is scratched on my copy. (I may pony up the cash just to get this song back someday--it is that good.)

Well...so ends my reflection, my midrash on Harvest Moon. Convinced? You should at least give this album a chance--you won't be sorry.

I give Harvest Moon my highest recommendation.

I own all of Neil's albums. So I can be biased. But this one is special. Each song on it is a classic; classic lyrics, classic sound, classic Neil. I've had to replace this Cd from wear and tear. It's the only one I've worn out. It's timeless. It's perfect.

Touted as the sequel to 1972's Harvest, which was released exactly twenty years prior to Harvest Moon, this album is really the final installment in a brilliant trilogy of folk gems that began with After The Goldrush. Subtle, tolerably sentimental, melodic, and austerely consistent in quality, this is an album that harkens back to 1978's Comes A Time, another release like the recent Silver and Gold devoted almost exclusively to Neil's folkish side.

As on Comes A Time, Harvest Moon plays like a greatest hits album, each song is better than the last, and all seem to be spawned from a secret chamber of beauty and serenity in Neil Young's soul. Sure, the Title track earned the most fame, but it is not the album's best. Note the stunning similarity between the explosive "War of Man" and "Goin' Back," from Comes A Time, proving that this is most definitely a "return to form" if there ever was one in Neil's career.

This is Neil at the apex of his songwriting prowess, opening with two instantly staggering tracks, "Unknown Legend" and "Hank To Hendrix," packed with the kind of fire-filled, multi-vocal choruses that can turn a Neil Young song into a stick of dynamite, and following up with the gorgeous "Dreamin' Man" and the great hound dog epic, Old King. There is not a dull moment on the album, it is clearly his most acsessible, consistent and riveting effort since 1979's Live Rust. Undoubtedly an obligation for any Neil Young fan, Harvest Moon serves as a tutorial on how to write a folk song and make it stick.

...seems to reach back, trying to regain the sound of his fourth.
Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Young's most popular album, "Harvest", "Harvest Moon" is not a sequel per se, but it has the same feel, and some of the musicians are even the same as in 1972.

Far from Young's recordings with Crazy Horse, "Harvest Moon" is a low-key set of mainly acoustic folk-rock and country-rock songs, most of them drum-less. It is not brimming with pop hooks, but that has never been Neil Young's thing anyway, and there are plenty of lovely, melodic tunes to be found. The laid-back acoustic shuffle "From Hank To Hendrix" is one. James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt provides vocal harmonies on another, "One Of These Days", and the beautiful title track is the highlight of the album, terrific arrangement and a lovely melody, one of Young's best ever.
"Old King" is a charming banjo-driven country song, one of the few up-tempo ones on this album, a tribute to a deceased dog. And "Dreaming Man" is an underrated gem in Young's lenghty catalogue, a gorgeous melody build around Young's acoustic guitar riff.

"Harvest Moon" is a Neil Young record, which means it is something of acquired taste. Young's high, reedy vocals are every bit as unusual as Bob Dylan's nasal croak...but if this is your thing, that is, if you have good taste, go get it ;o)
Fans of Mr. Young will definitely want this charming record in their collection.

This album was all Neil could do in 1992. The years before had brought successively harder and louder rock albums: "Freedom," "Ragged Glory," and the incredibly ear-piercing, distorted, feedback-drenched double live album "Weld" had taken their toll on Young's hearing and he couldn't have handled putting out another grungy, hard rock collection (apparently he contracted tinnitus). Thus, he returned to the pastoral feeling of "Harvest" (although he vehemently denied that it was a sequel), and to fine results. The best track is arguably the title one, and I'd buy this for "Old King" alone (a hilarious banjo tribute to his late dog Elvis). It's Young's most unusual release of the 90s; after this he released "Sleeps With Angels" and the incredible "Mirror Ball," both of which helped build his image as the "Godfather of Grunge." "Harvest Moon" is kind of a peaceful interim between the loud rock and roll of the other albums, and that's just fine, something he and his fans needed to give their ears a rest after "Weld."