Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Colorado
Release Date: Oct 25, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Reprise
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Album Review: Colorado by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Great, Based on 8 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
In 1979, Neil Young gave us two options: Burn out or fade away. Fast forward 40 years and we're learning there was a third option: Get the old band back together, head to the mountains and release your best album in two decades. Here, the godfather of grunge reunited Crazy Horse for their first album since 2012's Psychedelic Pill. Recorded analogue, live on the studio floor, Colorado's 10 songs capture what we've always loved about Crazy Horse: their tenderness, creativity and ability to shake your bones with distortion — often all in ….
Based on rating 8
'Colorado' is Neil Young's 39th album. Let's just let that sink in for a moment. He's reached that point in his career where very few people have constructed as large a catalogue, while delivering a consistent level of quality. On 'Colorado' Young has decided to record with Crazy Horse for the first time since 2012's 'Psychedelic Pill' and they've brought Nils Lofgren back for the first time since 1971, resulting in an album that sounds familiar but fresh and visceral.
Based on rating 4/5
He's been banging on about climate change for more than three decades and - well - maybe we should have listened to Neil Young, whose rage is palpable on his 39th album Watch Liam Gallagher's recent 73 Questions interview for Vogue and you'll see him reach a moment of absolute clarity when asked which rockstar got old but managed to still stay cool. "Neil Young," he nods after a split second's thought, pausing as he stomps across a sunny Hampstead Heath. He is, of course, 100% correct.
Based on rating 7.4/10
Many have tried, but no one plays guitar quite like Neil Young. He solos like something's buried under the fretboard that he's trying to dig out. When he transposes to acoustic settings, the inertia of his playing can cause his legs to cycle up and down wildly, a source of energy traveling through his entire body, dissipating in the lonesome exhaust of his fragile singing voice and harmonica playing.
Based on rating 7/10
At a time when chaos and unpredictability hold sway in so much of the world, it's hard to fault anyone for wishing for something stable and familiar, even from someone as chronically unpredictable as Neil Young. In 2019, Young announced he was recording again with Crazy Horse, and after a handful of especially eccentric and uneven albums -- 2016's Peace Trail, 2017's The Visitor, 2018's Paradox -- the notion of Neil and Crazy Horse cranking up their amps and making some righteous noise sounded like the sort of comfort food many fans had been hungry for. However, in time-honored Neil Young tradition, 2019's Colorado is a bit different than what fans might have been expecting.
Based on rating 6/10
The irrepressible Neil Young adds to his ever-growing catalog of albums with Colorado. Recorded with Crazy Horse (Nils Lofgren subs in for the retired Frank Sampedro), it's their first trip out of the barn since 2012's Psychedelic Pill. In spite of the idyllic mountaintop setting in which it was recorded, Young's thoughts are squarely on Planet Earth's waning days.
Based on rating 6/10
The irrepressible Neil Young adds to his ever-growing catalog of albums with Colorado. Recorded with Crazy Horse (Nils Lofgren subs in for the retired Frank Sampedro), it's their first trip out of the barn since 2012's Psychedelic Pill. In spite of the idyllic mountaintop setting in which it was recorded, Young's thoughts are squarely on Planet Earth's waning days.
Opinion: Excellent
Colorado is Neil Young's first album with Crazy Horse since the underwhelming pair of recordings released in 2012, the covers set Americana and Psychedelic Pill. The latter would have benefited from some judicious pruning, with three of its songs each clocking in at 16 minutes or more, and there is certainly greater focus this time around: only the eco-aware She Showed Me Love breaks six minutes, and it revels in the space it's afforded, unhurriedly making the case against "old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature" (and, yes, Young does include himself in their number). Elsewhere, there are echoes of Ragged Glory - and Monster-era REM - heaviness on the crunching Help Me Lose My Mind and Shut It Down.
'Colorado'
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