She said you’re strange, but don’t change
Fresh off the tailspin of Chrome Dreams, Neil Young released his 45th studio album Before & After on December 8, 2023. Produced alongside Lou Adler, Young is credited to the guitar, pump organ, harmonica, piano and vocals with accompaniment from Bob Rice on vibraphone and piano. Framed as an acoustic rerecording of various songs throughout his catalogue, the album is actually a single track with a continuous runtime at just under 48 minutes.
While Neil Young’s discography is absolutely one of the most sizable and dynamic to navigate, he never fails to unearth either new versions of his older classics or unreleased gems he’s kept hidden away. On this album he includes songs from as early as 1966 with Buffalo Springfield’s “Burned” to “Don’t Forget Love” from the 2021 release Barn. When choosing songs for a compilation such as this, there is no doubt that the approach is very thematic. With six decades of musical history to sift through, and a level of storytelling and songwriting rarely seen – the message is curated and symbolic of the times in which we live.
With this history, the format of Before & After and its continuity, the message is clear. Neil Young is very much still a part of the conversation. In “I’m The Ocean,” the albums opener, Young’s signature strumming is effortless. The vagabond narrator in Young’s vocals ruggedly echoing “I’m the ocean / I’m the giant undertow,” as a delicate harmonica transitions into 1974’s “Homefires.” A foray “between young lovers / who live separate lives,” where Young’s yearning is showcased in his vibrato that, again, perfectly transitions into 1966’s “Burned.” Young strips the song of its upbeat trills, cascading drums and heavy basslines. In contrast to the groups vocal harmonies and youthful ignorance, we are met with years of experience “burned and with both feet on the ground” byway of an almost spoken vocal chorus accentuated by Young’s guitar and harmonica. Again, we are gently forayed into the following track, “On the Way Home,” which has seen many versions of itself performed throughout the years. The original Buffalo Springfield version from Last Time Around, is in a lower key than the higher pitched version Young performed live on Bluenote Café . The styles are very emblematic of the decade in which they were performed in, the first has Richie Furay’s prominent vocals and harmonic “ahs” of the late ’60s. There is a degree of simplicity in the instrumentation, a crisp almost staccato like drum beat, harp like strings all accompanied by horns. In Young’s version, the piano leads more of the melody while the drums are heavier and feature more cymbals. The bass is an underlying current leading into sharp brass horns that brings in the best of the ’80s with the symbolic saxophonic solo. Young, for this 2023 era, in a way only he can, strips the two versions down into a softer moment. His vocal tone fluctuates with the emotion of the story of the song, mostly accompanied by his guitar alone. In place of horns, his pump organ seeps in and adds a dynamic depth to the layers of emotional vulnerability expressed throughout Young’s vocal performance. The track ends with “we are only what we feel / and I love you, can you feel it now?”
The album in full contains 13 songs, and having only covered the first four, it is safe to say the remaining 9 only get better. This is just a taste of Young’s innate ability to recreate and craft ornate instrumental pieces decade after decade. The lyrical themes are specific, varied and relevant. The last minutes of the experience are delicately laced in piano, as Young reminds us all of one of the most important universal messages, one that often begs reminding in order to be remembered and that is “don’t forget love.”
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