Another one from the raid on Oxfam in Market Harborough, and it's yet another Neil Young, this time his 1970 'classic' After The Gold Rush.
I was surprised I didn't already have it, but was willing to risk £1.99, and found I didn't already have it, so is it a 'classic'?
It certainly starts strongly, Tell Me Why sounding like peak whiny Young before settling into a decent song, then After The Gold Rush, one of the Young songs I've known of since childhood, reassuringly bleak, followed by the lovely Only Love Can Break Your Heart and the rocking Southern Man, with its guitar solo, which I'm sure Young can stretch out to twenty minutes live. Till The Morning Comes is a pleasant little ditty, just over a minute including flugelhorn break, ending a strong first half.
The second half kicks off with Oh, Lonesome Me, a tedious dirge, followed by Don't Let It Bring You Down, only marginally better then Birds, similarly dull. There's a return to something more interesting with When You Dance You Can Really Love, the second half showing some life for the first time, and while I Believe In You is a quieter but listenable song, the album ends with the awful singalong Cripple Creek Ferry, mercifully short.
After such a good first half, you're left wondering if he ran out of idea. There's enough decent stuff on here to make it worth a listen, but one of Young's 'classic albums'? Not for me
3* - a real album of two halves. Starts with such promise, then fades badly.
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