Neil Young turns 69 today, and he’s been as productive as ever lately. His new album, Storytone, was released last week, and it’s fairly predictable, in the sense that it’s totally unpredictables. You never know what sort of tricks Neil is going to pull, and this album was no different, as the album includes a 92-piece orchestra. Storytone is so hard to categorize that its Wikipedia entry lists it under the following genres: folk rock, symphonic rock, big band, swing.
This is hardly the first time Neil Young has made an album with elements coming completely out of left field. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the five weirdest albums the Canadian rock legend has ever made.
5. Le Noise (2010)
This was a solo album in the truest sense of the word, as most of the tracks simply feature Neil and an electric guitar. It’s a testament to the skills of producer Daniel Lanois (the album’s title is a nod to him), that Le Noise manages to have a raw, garage vibe to it, while also allowing the vocals and guitar to come in crystal clear. The album features extremely honest, confessional lyrics, particularly on “Hitchhiker.” It’s the most confrontational album Young has ever made, and it’s thoroughly intriguing all the way through.
4. Trans (1983)
The first of two odd albums Neil Young made in 1983 (more on that in a second), Trans features Young veering into the world of synth-pop. What makes it particularly notable however, is his use of the vocoder, which modifies his vocals considerably, at times rendering the lyrics unintelligible. Neil began using the vocoder as a way to communicate to his son, who was born with cerebral palsy. Young then decided to work the technology into his music, with mixed results. There are things to like about this album, though, as “Computer Age” is a fun, fairly catchy number, while the Kratwerk-esque “Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)” is joyfully odd. Not his most consistent record, but worth a listen, if only for the sake of curiosity.
3. Everybody’s Rockin’ (1983)
After the vocoder-based strangeness of Trans, Young decided to take another sharp left turn, this time making a rockabilly album, covering obscure ’50s tracks while adding a handful of originals.
After this second straight unconventional album, David Geffen was getting annoyed. he thought he was getting the Neil Young of Harvest and After The Gold Rush. What followed was one of the weirdest lawsuits in music history, as Neil Young was sued by Geffen for making “records unrepresentative of Neil Young.” What Geffen should have known is that Young’s musical output veers in all sorts of directions, and there really is no such thing as a “representative” Neil Young album. Geffen lost the suit, and it would later cost him the chance to sign R.E.M.., who chose to sign with Warner Brothers instead.
2. Arc (1991)
Neil Young’s status as one of the most brilliant guitar players ever is well documented, and Crazy Horse has always been one of the best backing bands around. Whether or not you can take 35 uninterrupted minutes of Neil jamming with the band may depend on how serious a fan you are. Arc was released both as a lone album, and as half of the Weld compilation, and it’s an entire disc of solos and improvisations that Young and Crazy Horse played over the course of various concerts. It’s a fascinating recording, and it captures the spontaneity of the live setting, but listening to the whole thing without interruption may be a bit of a challenge.
1. Dead Man (soundtrack) (1996)
As with Arc, this album features a lot of instrumental work, with Neil’s electric guitar being the main focus. But this time we also get Johnny Depp reciting the poetry of William Blake. The soundtrack to an equally weird Jim Jarmusch film, this album was Young at his most eccentric. Clearly, there was no expectation of commercial success for the film or its soundtrack, which allowed both Jarmusch and Young to experiment. If you’re a diehard Neil Young fan, you’ll probably be fascinated by this. More casual listeners may want to stick to Ragged Glory.
