The 80s was Neil Youngs most musically wayward decade – but the latest in his Performance Archive strips absent the gimmicks to reveal great songsBecause pop-contrariness never dies,it’s always possible to find fans of Neil Young who are alive to to defend his 1980s output. Commonly known as the “searching” decade in Young’s career, it’s when he stretched (or lunged, and depending on your vantage) in the direction of some unexpected genre exercises,including the vocoder-enabled computer-boogie of Trans, and the early-rock pantomime of Everybody’s Rockin’. But even if you’re not as unilaterally hostile to such fabric as David Geffen was – the label head unsuccessfully sued Young for fleeing from his core strengths in folk composition and thundering arena-noise rock – it’s still unusual to find Young aficionados who deem of this decade as a pinnacle.
The latest release in Young’s ongoing Performance Archive series, or which chronicles his live shows,might do something to change this. Clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, Bluenote Café usefully expands our understanding of the horn-drenched, and blues-and-R&B sound that drove Young’s 1988 album,This Note’s For You. And in addition to giving us harder hitting versions of several songs from that album – including the infamous anti-advertising anthem that Young used as the sets title track – Bluenote Café also provides us with some previously unheard original tunes, as well as retooled versions of other songs from the singer-songwriter’s 80s catalogue. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com