Le Noise [CD]

As anyone who has ever been more involved in music that sniping from the sidelines will know it takes a certain amount of courage to walk up to the mic stand alone, whether you layer the result in effects or not. But then Neil Young, no matter what else you may think of him, has always been an artist unafraid to take risks. Whether you think of him yelling at the tree-hugging hippies of the seventies desperately trying to galvanize them into action, scoring the oddball Jim Jamarsch movie `dead man' almost entirely with feedback and atmospherics, employing Pearl Jam as the world's most well-known backing band or going totally off the rails for the Geffen-contract-wrecking `Trans', the man has been nothing if not delightfully entertaining over his lengthy career even while only the most die-hard fan would try to claim that all his works are worthy of his name.

However, despite what the critics might have you believe, the last decade was certainly a strong one for Neil. `Chrome Dreams II' (a sequel to an album that was never made), `Living with War', `Greendale' and `road rock Vol 1' (a live album) were all hugely enjoyable while `Silver and Gold' and `prairie wind' were strong acoustic outings that lacked the punch of `Freedom' but which still had their moments of classic Young beauty. `Le Noise' thus closes out the decade in fine style and sees Neil doing what he does best, namely confounding his fans (and his detractors) expectations to do things his way and it works all too well.

At 39 minutes `Le noise' is a brief affair, but given the densely sounds contained within that's probably a good thing. On offer are eight tracks of varying vintage (much like `Chrome dreams II'. Young has once again plundered his unreleased back catalogue for inspiration) that rattle out of the speakers with a raw energy that few singer/songwriters could match. Opening gambit `walk with me' is a prime example. Branded by one critic as `unlistenable' it swells out of a miasma of pure Young guitar - that same wonderful tone that set hairs on the back of the neck a-tingling on `ordinary people' - before Young's feline howl breaks the static and the electric sparks flying are unmistakable; this is Young in top, confrontational form and the fact that this is just one man and a guitar is all too easily forgotten thanks to clever use of effects and Young's electric, attention grabbing performance. His guitar howls, roars and spits while the man himself sings better than ever, perhaps aware that shorn of a backing band he can't afford to slack off on the vocal front. As the track fades off into a wall of ear-drum damaging feedback it's hard not to rejoice that the Neil Young who doused listeners in thirty minutes of feedback with `Arc' is standing front and centre with a malicious grin on his face and a glint in his eye. And that's only the first track. `Sign of love' is rather more traditional in outlook, recalling the wounded howl of `Tonight's the night' via the grizzled distortion of `Sleeps with angels' and once again you're left in awe that one man can make so much noise. `Someone gonna rescue you' is another gem with an insistent melody and the effects rack of famed producer Daniel Lanois allowing Young's guitar to sound somewhere between an instrument of raging rock and a pump organ allowing a rhythmic sensibility to seep in despite the complete absence of percussion of any kind.

Having scared off its detractors with a consistent barrage of distorted guitar the album shifts gear to the acoustic beauty of `Love and war' which stands as a lament that seems to be largely about Young's own career as a musician and political commentator. It's one of his finest works both emotionally and musically and in one song he captures everything that he wanted to say on the `living with war' album in a truly elegant five and a half minutes. "Angry world" underlines its theme with one of the heaviest riffs Young has ever written while his voice echoes around the spaces where a band would normally be. The effect is slightly unsettling, while the droning feedback that closes the song is pure Sonic Youth - a notion that Young would undoubtedly take as a compliment. `Hitchhiker' is better still - a wonderful track that recalls the electric lament of `hey hey, my my (into the black) with a chorus that rages with a white hot intensity while Young revisits the piles of drugs that have popped up over the course of his lengthy career.

A second acoustic track `Peaceville valley Boulevard' offers up another glimpse of the beauty that Neil Young is so capable of delivering and here, standing in contrast to some of his noisiest material in an age, it shines all the brighter. Beautifully played and utterly naked, it can be heavy going but rewarding nonetheless and a true testament to the man's skill. Final track `Rumbling' is a real oddity with all sorts of strange effects building the introduction before a guitar that is distorted to the point of destroying the speaker-cone slithers out and Neil Young's most self-lacerating lyric cries out from the darkness "when will I learn how to give back?"It's a fitting end to an album that is arguably one of Neil's most human endeavours and despite the Pink Floyd bothering array of effects used to mask the emotional undercurrent racing through this release the overwhelming feeling is that you've spent forty minutes in the company of the real Neil Young - torn by self doubt and yet propped up by a belief in his music and his politics, born of a desire to rock and yet fragile and vulnerable -all those aspects can be found here on this challenging and starkly beautiful release.

Ultimately this will not attract newcomers to Neil Young's oeuvre - there are too many other records better suited to that task and `Le noise' is a dense, nervy piece. However, for fans who have stuck by Neil over the years this is a triumphant record that sees the man's most human side laid bare even while his trusty guitar rages with a fire and intensity that the decade's other fine releases didn't quite succeed in matching. It's difficult - for sure, but then who ever said great art had to be easy? A triumph for an artist who consistently divides opinion.

Original Review At [...]

Le Noise is an album that Neil Young needed to make. Just when it seemed like the ornery old cowpoke may have said all he had to say, along come 38 minutes and 1 second of sonic assault that remind us why his career has lasted over 40 years, and why he still matters.

Daniel Lanois's production signature is far less evident that might have been expected (or feared), but whatever his role in the delivery of this album, his touch has been just enough to breathe new life into Young's 'Old Black'. Songs like 'Love And War' with its echoes of 'Eldorado' from 1989's Freedom, 'Sign Of Love' and 'Angry World' are the best things that he has written since.... well, since some of the previous best things he has written. There is no band accompaniment; just Young spitting brooding and distorted soundscapes from his electric guitar. Sometimes, this sounds almost like the precursor to a full-on band sound that is about to rush in and thrash a song in true Crazy Horse style, but the restraint is in many ways the album's strength. Here is something entirely familiar, but new.

Most welcome of all is one of a number of 'Holy Grail' songs from Neil Young's archives, 'Hitchhiker', which finally appears on an album 36 years after it first surfaced. Unlike 'Ordinary People' on Chrome Dreams II, 'Hitchhiker' is surrounded by a set of songs that are almost of equal stature. It blends in beautifully with the album's mood, a journey through the past of Young's back pages in the spirit of 'Don't Be Denied', or even 'Helpless'. There is relief in the beautiful 'Love And War' and 'Peaceful Valley Boulevard'. These electric and acoustic bedfellows recall one of Young's previous career highs, the glorious Rust Never Sleeps whose sonic assault saw Young tipping his hat to punk. 32 years later, Le Noise is an album that will sit high up in the canon as one of the best things he has done.

So, some people have given this 5 stars. Then, other people who don't like this record so much, think that all the people who've given it 5 stars are "Neil Young devotees" who give him 5 stars regardless of the quality of the music. Is it not possible that some people do think this deserves 5 stars?

Let me tell you; I'm a Neil Young devotee. But that doesn't mean I think this is a 5 star record. I don't. I too read some of the hype about this record before it's release, claiming it was an instant classic, and that this was Neil's best writing since the 70s. I don't think it is. I'm not disappointed though. But you know; I don't like all Neil's albums. I would give quite a few of them 5 stars, but I bet they aren't the same records every other "Neil Young devotee" or casual Neil Young fan would give 5 stars to. So let's just dispense with all the sniping at people who enjoy certain records more than you do. Can we? Unless those people are actually employed by the record company to get a few good reviews on Amazon...

So that's pretty much all I have to say that hasn't been said already. I agree with most that "Love and War" and "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" are the best songs, and that they are of a high enough quality on their own right. Elsewhere, I don't really think this is representative of the great guitar playing that Neil is capable of, but to me it's obvious that he hasn't gone for virtuosity this time. The songs are low-key and simple - that's just the kind of record he's decided to make. I actually like the idea of it more than I like the execution. I'm certainly not a fan of Lanois. All he seems to have done here is make the guitar sound like Metallica, and added tons of delay to Neil's vocal. It just doesn't sit well with me.

In summary, I don't like Le Noise too much, but I'll defend Neil's right to make it. I certainly don't feel like he's exploiting me, and I don't feel like I've wasted my money. He's creating, trying something a bit different, and it's not all that successful for me. It obviously is for others, though.

Should you buy it? I don't know. You're not going to know whether you like it until you hear it...