Amazon.co.uk Review
By 1975 Young had written some of the most enduring anthems in rock history. But from the slow, tension-building piano opening of "Tonight's the Night", he downshifts into darkness and Crazy Horse's folk-country melodies take on a guttural hum that would eventually speak to generations of punk and grunge musicians. Inspired by the overdose deaths of two of Young's friends, roadie Bruce Berry and guitarist Danny Whitten, the title track (and its closing reprise) is a hypnotic cry of "why?" Even the relative party songs, "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" and "Roll Another Number", fit the album's bus-to-nowhere resignation.
--Steve Knopper
CD Description
Let's get a popular misconception out of the way. The rap about this being one of Young's darkest, most harrowing albums is utter nonsense, perpetuated by critics who spend more time reading each other than listening to the music. TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is dedicated to Young's guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry, who died shortly before this recording was made, and the title cut details that very subject, but the darker moments here are leavened by a generous share of self-parodic humor and general Neil Young loopiness.
Sad, tender ballads like "Borrowed Tune", (itself not without humor) rub shoulders with hearty rockers like "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown". Several tunes find Young and Crazy Horseexploring hard-edged country-rock with their collective tongue stuck firmly in the cheek, as on "Roll Another Number". Young's voice reels sadistically and purposefully out of tune, cutting through the arrangements like strategically placed barbed-wire (and providing a template for the work of WillOldham/Palace two decades later). Sardonic, taunting, mercilessly self-deprecating, often downright funny, TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT is no gloomfest, but a multi-faceted, full-bodied classic.