Neil Young Silver and Gold album review
by Cook Young
What can I say, Silver and Gold is no shining moment in Papa Neil's career. With all due respect to Young, whose extensive catalog comprises some of pop's best compositions, this new work unfortunately lacks spark. It's an enjoyable enough listen, but mediocrity is simply not what we expect from Neil, even at this late stage in the game.
The CD, formerly slated to be released under the moniker of Acoustica is, as you would expect from the original title, a collection of light folksy tunes. Most tracks feature Young and acoustic guitar with some austere instrumentation added to round things out, a fiddle here, the obligatory Linda Ronstadt vocal there. Should you misinterpret my opening paragraph (no doubt the angry emails from Neil Young loyalists will be streaming in shortly), this is by no means a bad album. It's got Papa Neil's trademark voice, which appears to be in good enough shape, and much of his trademark tunesmith craftsmanship. So what's the problem?
If I had to put my finger on any one thing, it would be this: In the course of Silver and Gold's three-year gestation, along came Crosby, Stills, and Nash, who signed up Neil for another go at glories past and present. As part of the merger, Neil offered up the best four tracks from Silver and Gold for CSN&Y's forthcoming release Looking Forward. What we're left with is pleasant enough detritus, but detritus all the same.
Evidently, Young himself apparently had some misgivings about extracting the cream from the crop. "Some people questioned the wisdom of letting these songs go," he says. "But I felt at the time that my album may have been suffering under its own weight and that by taking them out I could free up the whole thing. I listened again and, with the new running order, it seemed like an entirely different album to me, raised to a whole new level."
Though Young's candor is always refreshing, I don't know if "raised" is the correct word to describe what seems to have happened here. The album does have its moments – the haunting melody of Razor Love is beautifully mesmerizing, as are many of the passages on the CD – unfortunately, they are obscured in the most part by its failings. Try this lyric on for size (from Instant Camera): "If love is a piece of dust shining in the sun, all I want is a song of love." Even from kooky Neil, we expect something a bit more sensible than this.
On the plus side, the post-looting compositions are probably better than most of the crap you'll hear on the radio (and the Internet) these days. The songs are tuneful and plaintive, if not somewhat lazy sounding. We've seen Hard-Rock Neil (Rust Never Sleeps), Electronic Neil (Trans), Country Neil (Old Ways). I guess it's time for Tired Neil. Over the past three decades, Young has been a standout, if not somewhat inconsistent, artist. As mentioned, even this latest release is probably better that 99 percent of the stuff you'll hear, buy, or download these days. Nevertheless, if Young were to compete with himself, this time around he would surely lose.