Neil Young - After The Gold Rush - LP

Neil Young's third solo album followed his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young masterpiece Déjà vu. Top 10 and double Platinum, with the Top 40 "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and his condemnation of racism in "Southern Man," 1970's After The Gold Rush has been ranked among the "100 Greatest Albums Of All Time" by both Rolling Stone and Time magazines. The album continues its collage of styles, from the wistfulness of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" to song fragments like "'Til The Morning Comes" to the transformation of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" from canter to ballad. And there's the magnificent title track, a vividly drawn portrait of post-'60s melancholy, and the gorgeous, aching "Birds," a swan song heralding emotional departure. Both songs are graced by Nils Lofgren's delicate piano and stand as two of Young's finest compositions. In a catalog filled with rock classics, After The Gold Rush still ranks among the best. After The Gold Rush mixes up the hard rock of Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere and the folk and country leanings Young pursued with Crosby, Stills and Nash in one of his most eclectic and satisfying releases. The acoustic picking on the opener "Tell Me Why" frames Young's vulnerable warble beautifully, signaling the softer aspect of the album. But the electric crunch of "Southern Man," a raging tour de force protest song that captures the special chemistry between Young and backing group Crazy Horse, balances Young's sensitivity with aggression and amplification.