Customer Reviews

Le Noise

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Looking back at Neil Young's studio releases from 2001s Are You Passionate? up through 2008s Fork in the Road, the best I can personally say is that I find several of them okay. At worst, I wish Are You Passionate had not been released. I have bought each new album with a combination of hope and trepidation, including Le Noise. I read the great advance reviews, and I hoped they were correct. But, there were all these albums released in the 2000s...

I'm pleased to say that Le Noise is a very good album; not classic, but very good and a worthy addition to the Neil Young catalog. Young's guitar playing is wonderful, as is the production of Daniel Lanois. Personally, I think many of the songs would have benefitted from some additional players, especially some drums, but that is not a major complaint.

These are some of the strongest songs, lyrically and musically, that Young has released in at least a decade. Like a previous reviewer, I find "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" the highlight of Le Noise; it felt like a long lost "Rust Never Sleeps" track to me. It is that good. Other highlights for me include "Hitchhiker" and "Love and War."

Le Noise is a fully engaging album. Yes, it is short, but I'd rather have a short, excellent Neil Young album than a long, tedious one. Recommended.

This "solo" album by Neil Young is almost as much as a Young/Lanoise co-album, with the soundscapes a consequence of an instrument built by Lanoise (not to mention his production). The 2000's had been a mixed bag by Neil Young, with albums like Fork in the Road, Living with War, Chrome Dreams II all, to some extent, decent albums but none on par with what made him a legend. With Le Noise, the only complaint a Neil Young fan can have is its length, clocking in at less than 40 minutes. The songs are universal, timeless, and strong, especially Hitchhiker. No more songs about electric cars or G.W. Bush sound blurbs, with a focus on love, life, war, and regret. Oh yeah- I have listened to the album over 10 times (it's been on NPR all week), which I thought I'd mention since some people are weary of "first day" reviews from someone who's listened to the album once.

To me, it sounds more like a Silver and Gold album but with the music giving it a new, different feel, than his rocking albums. This album is meditative, sung with Neil Young's tenor, and one I would place among my favorites.

The steady decline in sales of Neil Young's recent albums - climaxing in the colossal commercial flop of his long-awaited, oft-delayed Archives box - shows that even hard-cores have grown tired of both his mostly subpar 2000s releases and his market saturation. Not immune, I did the unthinkable with Le Noise - for the first time, I did not buy a Young album automatically. Instead, I streamed it on NPR, where Young generously offered it for free - seemingly daring unprecedentedly critical fans to dislike it. I can thankfully say that I was very pleasantly surprised, deciding that, poverty be damned, I had to have it, too.

Le Noise is by far Young's best album since Greendale - and as I seemed to be one of the few who loved that, it will be the best since Harvest Moon for most. Young has certainly written his best set of unrelated songs since that album and is near top form musically and vocally. He also seems to have been revitalized by legendary producer Daniel Lanois. Lanois is one of the few producers with a vast influence on the sound of albums he oversees, and his trademarks are unmistakable. This unsurprisingly makes him someone people either love or hate. I happen to love him, but even those who dislike him violently may be surprised by this, which is noticeably different from anything he has done though still bearing some signatures. I was skeptical of his claims that the album has a truly revolutionary sound, but he does not exaggerate. Young clearly would not have sounded thus without him, but Young also seems to push Lanois into new territory, creating something startlingly fresh. I was also worried on hearing that this is a true solo album, Young being the only musician and almost entirely on electric guitar. This could - and has - worked brilliantly on acoustic, but electric seemed a different matter. However, though the two acoustic cuts are the best, making one wish for more, electric ones mostly hold up. Young has always been a ferocious electric guitarist - again basically a love-him-or-hate-him type -, and this is about as wild and loud as he has ever been. Those always turned off to his proto-punk/thrash will not be converted, but listeners who have always loved it will be enchanted to hear it in a new way. A Young live album infamously begins with an audience member shouting, "It all sounds the same!" and Young ingenuously replying, "It's all the same song." It still is in the sense that those who have always loved this long-time side of the supremely multi-faceted artist will still love it, but it also sounds impossibly fresh - a delightful paradox only Young could pull off. Lanois will likely not convert age-old antagonists either but did craft a truly in-your-face sound that really rocks in a way no one has ever quite done. He also must be credited for coaxing an extraordinary range of sounds from Young's lone electric guitar, especially considering that there are no overdubs. It at times sounds nearly acoustic and at other times seems positively menacing - not just loud but expansive, seemingly all-encompassing. Lanois also draws out bass and percussive sounds to a seemingly unbelievably degree. Finally, whatever else one thinks of him, he does one thing undeniably right by recording Young's vocals clearly and putting them upfront, the lack of which has always been a problem on Young's louder records.

All this may seem to slight Young himself, but he is unquestionably the star. His vocals are very strong - far more so than most singers his age. He has lost little range and perhaps no emotion, also thankfully sparing us recent albums' painfully bad falsetto. His electric playing is the showcase, but he also reminds us that he has long been one of rock's best acoustic guitarists. He is as strong as ever here, even throwing in unprecedented flamenco flourishes on "Love and War." The only thing missing are the extended electric solos of yore that he has sadly shied away from recently.

This overwhelming enthusiasm is not to say that Le is without significant flaws, and it certainly does not stand with Young's best work. For starters, it begins slowly, the first two cuts being the kind Young has seemingly thrown off too often recently: short with uninteresting vocals; asinine, hardly rhyming words; and no real melodies. I despaired on hearing them, thinking the album would be as bad as I feared. However, it picks up on song three and never really heads back south. Lack of variety is arguably another problem. The acoustic tracks are well-placed to avoid monotony, as several electric ones sound very similar, but a little more sonic texture would have been nice. Also, several Lanois touches are frustrating even for this long-time fan, specifically the annoyingly repetitive vocal bits at the beginning and end of a few songs. More fundamentally, the album is woefully short at 38 minutes, which is simply inexcusable in 2010.

Since the songs essentially sound like each other and, acoustic ones aside, like nothing else, Le is that truly rare thing in music today - an album that is meant as an album and works as one. It holds up well in this way but also has definite highlights.

"Walk With Me" and "Sign of Love" do a good job of introducing Le's basic sound but are otherwise forgettable. Putting them together, especially at the front, was not the best idea, as they reinforce each other's mediocrity and make an unfortunately underwhelming start.

With the first interesting riff, much better lyrics, and a full-fledged vocal, "Someone's Gonna Rescue You" is significantly better even if it is the first of several songs that might have worked better with a band.

"Love and War" is an acoustic cut of the kind only Young can do and comes as a nice contrast. An exemplar of the confessional singer/songwriter genre that Young has always epitomized, it is highly moving and even thought-provoking. Nakedly autobiographical yet almost self-mocking and also deeply searching, it has the kind of self-references and sentimentality that would be trite or even corny if sung by anyone else but almost brings as tear as Young sings it. Fans of his acoustic side will love it. This is the kind of thing that Prairie Wind tried so hard for but almost fully lacked.

"Angry World" is the best electric cut so far but seems somewhat incomplete. It has very interesting lyrics and an intriguing vocal but should have been expanded and would have almost certainly been better with a band, though the solo riffing is remarkably hard-core.

"Hitchhiker" was previously heard on the Harvest Moon tour as a solo acoustic piece. Diehards bemoaned its exclusion from 2009's Dreamin' Man live album but thankfully did not have to wait long. Some may prefer the first version, but it is very hard to fault this; the arrangement works, and the song has truly found a home. In another example of the kind of song only he could get away with, Young gives a somewhat surreal, mildly self-mocking autobiography, complete with a list of drugs he has done and when he did them. Both hilarious and tragic, it is one of the few songs that can make one both laugh and (at least nearly) cry.

The acoustic epic "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" is the album's masterpiece, Young's best new song since...well, Harvest Moon. The playing is lovely and the vocal caressingly touching. A thoughtful tribute to nature's supremacy and humanity's hubris in thoughtlessly and selfishly destroying it, "Peaceful" is Young at his lyrical best. At once philosophical and political, it deftly moves from image to carefully constructed image with masterful evocation. I have been waiting for years - seemingly almost decades - for Young to write a song like this and had almost given up. This proudly takes its stand beside masterworks like "Thrasher" and "Pocahontas."

"Rumblin'" is an excellent, highly atmospheric closer. One would have to look quite hard to find a better example of vocal, lyrical, and musical melding. An incisive implication of human arrogance and the price we may soon have to pay, the song closes the album with an almost literal bang.

In short, this is the album most fans have been clamoring for. One should certainly have Young's top-tier work first, but anyone really interested in him - especially those who have been recently disappointed - should embrace this as unexpected treasure.

The echoing, reflective sounds of the guitar and vocals get to be hypnotic a lot of times. Seriously, I have altered mind memories of these very sounds from the mid-70's ... There is a lot of beauty and reflection here that is an incredible addition to an amazing canon.

Neil Young - Le Noise (2010)

One has to be cautious when approaching a Neil Young record review. It seems every time Neil Young puts out a new album, people come out of the woodwork to proclaim, "I'm a longtime fan and this is the weakest album he's ever made". Or even worse, "Neil should hang up his guitar and quit music for good"...it's very tiresome. Unless it's a "professional" reviewer who strives to maintain objectivity, it's helpful to know what kind of Neil Young fan the reviewer is considering the incredibly wide range of styles he's employed over the years. As for myself, I'll say straight off the bat that while I dig nearly everything the man has made I especially love his super-heavy rock music and I have little use for his excursions into pure Country. So when I first put on LE NOISE I was thrilled with the awesome, over-driven guitar distortion and intrigued that he was playing without a backing band. He's playing solo but, for the most part, he's not picking pretty songs on an acoustic guitar.

When I first get a new album, I often listen to it over and over if it's good, but that hasn't been the case with LE NOISE. It wore out its welcome fairly quickly after a few spins. I expect it will be an album to return to from time to time but never one I'll put on repeat or play very often. No, LE NOISE does not represent Young's best songwriting, and yes, the lyrics are weak in several places. As is the case with many rock artists, I wish I could've gotten in there to tweak a few lines; often it wouldn't take much to transform a weak lyric into great one (or at least a coherent one).

But I think LE NOISE is actually a pretty good album for what it is: Neil Young at his rawest, with plain, unadorned words that come straight from the heart accompanying an interesting, unusual musical approach. Maybe the lyrics aren't as well thought out as they could've been but at least they're honest. And Young's rock n' roll side has always tended to be raw and primitive, so this shouldn't come as much of a shock to anyone. There's no denying the guitar tones and textures are fantastic. The production has a lot of trippy echoes and weird effects that fill up the speakers and create a distinctive, evocative atmosphere. LE NOISE has a pretty side too that's evident to anyone who cares to listen with an open mind. I think that Neil wrote some good songs here, and despite their many shortcomings, I feel he put some real effort into them. While LE NOISE doesn't measure up to his best albums, Neil Young has once again added a unique record to an amazing canon already full of them.

Breakdown!

"Walk With Me" - Young strikes a raging guitar chord and proceeds to deliver a bold and powerful song, an affirmation of the love and friendship of someone very special (his wife). The heavy distortion is intense and the song soon takes some surprising turns, closing out in a sort of psychedelic nostalgia full of strange, evocative sounds and echoes of the past while Young laments the loss of friends who have passed on. *****

"Sign of Love" - has the revved-up guitar sound and the thick, spacey atmosphere that characterizes most of LE NOISE. It sounds great, but all that noise covers up a rather unremarkable tune. It's a simple love song about loving his wife, and while simple can be a really good thing, that's not so much the case on this one. ***

"Someone's Going to Rescue You" - Same sound, and like "Sign of Love" it's a less-than-impressive song. There's a pretty cool rhythm guitar line that chugs along, some good melody in the vocals, yet somehow it's just not very compelling. Maybe this one's too close to being a standard rock song to be able to pull it off without a backing band. ***

"Love and War" - abandons the noisy guitar of the previous songs for an acoustic sound. It's a remarkable song that addresses the overwhelming nature of these two subjects and Young's own shortcomings when trying to sing about them. It acknowledges the fact that these things can be too much for anyone to handle and they often drive people to pray about them. Limitations, inadequacy, that's what this song deals with. A subdued song, well-played with simple sections and more sophisticated ones including some Spanish-style guitar. ****

"It's an Angry World" - The big guitar sound returns but with less heavy distortion. Endlessly echoing vocal effects sound cool but they can't hide the fact that the song is weak, the lyrics are lazy and the guitar playing sucks. The idea for this album is a good one but this song in particular makes the case that Neil lacked inspiration when he made it. **

"The Hitchhiker" - is a crude account of Young's life from a drug using perspective. Starting from life as an unknown in Toronto smoking hash, then taking amphetamines and on to California where he became famous. From there he describes paranoia, isolation, having a child, breaking up with his wife and going off the deep end on cocaine. He closes with amazement at being alive and being grateful for his wife and children. His guitar drones on and on as producer Daniel Lanois' production enhances the atmosphere. It's somewhat interesting on first listen and it sounds kinda cool, but I have to conclude that it's just not very good. **

"Peaceful Valley Boulevard" - laments the exploitation of Mother Earth and the onslaught of global warming at the hands of mankind. It begins with the migration of white settlers into Western America where they overrun the natives and plunder the natural resources. Again returning to the acoustic guitar, Young plays an evocative motif that appears occasionally during the course of the song which is dour and contemplative. Young's voice cracks on occasion (as it does every so often throughout the album); this defect can be effective when a singer is truly singing from the heart, but I don't think Neil quite pulls it off here. I like the song, I want to say it's good, but again the lyrics are poorly written and aside from that guitar figure it's not really very moving. ***

"Rumblin'" - "the earth is slowly changing...I feel the rumblin' in her ground...when will I learn how to give back? When will I learn how to heal?" Young sings from a 1rst person perspective, but "Rumblin'" is effectively a coda to the album that implores mankind to wake up to the destruction it's inflicting on the earth and to do something about it. Delivered once more with that heavy guitar sound, it's ominous and subdued. ****

overall rating: caution. Recommended for fans or aficionados of "noise rock". Those relatively new to Neil Young are advised to start with his most commonly acknowledged classics. From a rock perspective, one of the best places to start would be his second album and first with long-time backing band Crazy Horse: EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE, one of his very best albums.

I was ready to hear another more-money-less-talent-end-of-the-career-rewrite-the-same-songs-again album but this wasn't it. The songs sound fresh. The song Love and War is so sad, I don't like listening to it. The guitars sound good. The melodies are pretty new but still sound like late Niel melodies. The sound is so fresh!. Thank God Neil got rid of the bump bump THUMP.. bump bump THUMP.. bump bump THUMP.. rhythm that has bugged me for the last 15 years. He has finally got digital recording right. The sound treble isn't washed out and sharp like it is in Wrecking Ball, the voice and grunge is clearer than it was in El Dorado. His voice is still great, it breaks a bit but that doesn't detract.

Maybe Neil didn't use as many drugs as he said. He cant still hold a note and his brain still works, which puts him well ahead of CS&N, poor buggers.

Neil Young is hardly taking things easy.

A splendid effort with producer Daniel Lenois (Bob Dylan, U2), he does not sound like the lion in the winter he has, arguably, sounded like on several of his more recent album releases.

He sounds as rejuvenated, energetic, strong and effervescent as he did 40 years ago. All these years into his career, still walking down the same path he has blazed for himself, he is still putting out new information.

This album is like walking down a scenic route with a wise old man you greatly revere. You have walked with him many times before, yet he manages to point out new things to you he had not observed before. New stories are there for the telling, and for Mr. Young they pour out like sweat.

By comparison, this makes recent CDs by others in Young's circle of contemporaries (I'm sorry Mr. Clapton and Mr. Santana - I'm looking at both of you) look more like coasters than music.

He's using more power chords than he has in a long time. There are very strong, hard, bass-driven chords peppered throughout the album, especially on the incisive, mournful "Angry World" and the urgent, welcoming "Walk with Me," which packs dizzying soundscapes and swirling, pulsing, powerful production.

On lyrical merit alone he still injects incredible power. He makes grand impression by saying few words.

"Love and War" could be called bread and butter Young, certainly - he makes light of that himself amid the lyrics without injecting undue humor - but it should not be criticized as trite or overdone. This is merely a talented singer/songwriter, at 64 - and the top of his game - looking at the world surrounding him and responding to it accordingly.

The tracks gel well together. "Sign of Love" has evocative playing and a spaced-out-arrangement that twists, jerks and chips away at his vocals in a compelling mix of sound - evidence that Lenois did more than just sign a contract and call it day. "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" is one of Young's most stirring offerings here as well, with striking imagery that includes polar bears on melting floes and indecisive politicians who cannot reach agreements. "A child was born and wondered why," he grieves.

With "Le Noise," Neil Young is back in a big way. This is a set of tunes that many, including longtime listeners, will second-guess and take for granted. It is to their detriment. Young sounds reawakened in no uncertain terms. He has his pulse on what is happening both today as well as in the grand scheme, sounding more keyed in and in step than the vast majority of other artists in his position. He is a welcome enigma, and we are lucky to have him in our midst still observing and contributing so eloquently.

Ever wonder what it would be like to hang out with Neil at his farm and just let him plug in and play for 45 minutes or so? This is your chance. Sure, some of these tunes would benefit from the rest of a band (yes, Crazy Horse, even)...but somehow, I think their absence is part of the point.

Neil has done just about everything there is to do, with varying degrees of commercial success and, dare I say, personal satisfaction. I have a feeling that this is a satisfying release on a lot of levels. Mainly because Le Noise seems to stand alone compared to the balance of his prodigious output. And that's no small feat.

With that said, I think the people who are giving this 5 stars are such sycophants that Neil could release stool samples and they'd write the same sterling review of yet another "classic." Hey, Neil Young Fan Clubkids: Save those writings for the next newsletter. Please.

On the very first track, Neil asks us to "walk with him." I wholeheartedly invite you to do so, but enjoy his company like that of an old friend who wants you to know what he's been up to lately. If you adjust your expectations accordingly, you'll undoubtedly feel rewarded for your efforts.

I have enormous respect for everything this bold and [seemingly] highly personal cd strives for yet, what makes it adventerous also severely limits it and, therefore, makes this hard to classify it as anything other than an "unusual" work as opposed to Young's more collaborative, band efforts. There is only so much you can do with one man and a guitar.

I know he cannot, at his age duplicate and rehash what he has done in a 40 year career. I also know that he has the clout to try something daring (which he always has). He is such a respected electric guitar player that he has earned the right to play with just his voice accompanying it. His voice is so emotional and sincere that it packs a lot of punch being accompanied by just a simple guitar.

I enjoy the acoustic songs ("Peaceful Valley Blvd" is the highlight) more than the electric one. The reason being, is that I have been accostomed to Neil Young playing with just his acoustic guitar. However, the electric songs, while very interesting, sound too similar to each other and therefore, does not warrant repeated listenings.

If I was listening to the radio and just heard one of these electric songs come on, the sheer organic nature of it would, no doubt, make it very appealing. With the whole theme of the cd in that context, it makes too much of a good thing sound too monatonous.

This is a high-quality, bold effort made by someone that is still, very much so, a relevant artist. For the casual Neil Young fan, it just has limited appeal.

If I had gone strictly on reviews here I would have passed on this. Luckily, I took the time to sample the tracks online. I'm glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised when I did and blown away once I heard the entire album.

I have to admit, initially when I heard the first track "Walk With Me" I kept feeling like I was waiting for the drums and bass to kick in, so Neil's approach here is a bit awkward but he IS awkward and quite frankly, does what feels right to him. He obviously has plenty of musicians at his disposal so his vision here just did not require them. I think it's a testament to just how independent a person and an artist he is. I think this approach is perfect for what he is trying to convey and once again, he is a master at conveying a simple, strong message of love, devotion, support, and above all else, an unwavering positive spirit. Neil's ability to move a listener with both strong musical ideas and exceptionally deep lyrics is on full display once again.

Truth is, I love the whole album but two tracks are stand outs and worth the price of admission on their own. "Hitchhiker" is an amazing lyrical journey into the depths of Neil's reminiscent mind and you go along for the ride as he goes through the history of his drug encounters as a young man and what was going on around him at the time. Classic Neil moments here w/ some catchy lyrical hooks like when he recalls an encounter with hash singing "I smoked it through a pen and I'd do it again but I didn't have the cash!"

"Peaceful Valley Boulevard" is just a masterpiece w/ it's incredibly moody chord progression and perfectly painted lyrics of the first white settlers of the open plains of North America initially venturing westward. "The wagon train rolled through the dusty canyon, the settlers full of wonder as they crossed, a gentle creek where two old oaks were standing, before the west was won there was a cost, a rain of fire came down upon the wagons, a mother screamed and every soul was lost". This song is incredibly engaging and it's overall vibe stays with me long after I am done listening.

Frankly, I am a bit surprised at the number of negative reviews here. It's as if folks were blind sided or tricked. Neil never promises anything other than that he will pour his entire heart and soul into every project he takes on.You can never count on what his approach will be as he will usually never do the same thing in succession. He will always change it up. I think his approach on this album is both unique and affective. Maybe next time some of you out there will do a little homework before purchasing a new album. I have found it to be very helpful.