couple this with the cold, dark, winter months, and monday mornings can be downright dreary affairs. today's selection doesn't exactly counter that, it moreso embraces it. though a little on the short side, this collection pairs quite well with the colour of a pre-dawn sky, and the cold smell of february.
hit the jump, and we'll talk about Monday Morning Commute Album #2, some Neil Young.
grunge rock grandpa, neil young, provides this week's transit score
Monday Morning Commute Album # 2: Le Noise - Neil Young
album cover for neil young's le noise
Album: Le Noise
Artist: Neil Young
Release Date: September 28, 2010
Recorded: various dates, 2010, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Producer: Daniel Lanois
Performer: Neil Young
Peak Chart Positions: 2 (Canada, Sweden), 14 (United States)
Listening Device: iPhone 4, iPhone ear buds (i was going to switch to my panasonics this week, but encountered a problem and will now be replacing them. don't cry for me, argentina)
Track listing:
1. Walk With Me
2. Sign of Love
3. Someone's Gonna Rescue You
4. Love and War*
5. Angry World*
6. Hitchhiker
7. Peaceful Valley Boulevard
8. Rumblin'
Though Le Noise stand's as Young's 33rd (!!!) studio album, it stands as his first as a truly solo artist. Absent are any members of Crazy Horse, or Crosby Stills and Nash - there's no Booker T and the MGs or Pearl Jams. When listening to Le Noise one will hear almost exclusively Neil Young, and one of few guitars used to record the album (a les paul, a gretsch falcon, a custom Guild, and a Martin d-28). the sole other audible tones on the record are effects being manipulated by fellow canadian genius Daniel Lanois.
No stranger to concept albums in the past (notable examples Neil Young and Crazy Horse Present: Greendale, and Trans) on Le Noise Young explores the media more intimately, and to perhaps greater results.
no, not this greendale!
this one. :p
Early in 2010, inspired with his work on his own recent Black Dub project, Young reached out to Daniel with the concept of doing a solo record. Having not dabbled in the field of solo recording before, Young felt inclined to write acoustic songs, feeling that's all the genre warranted. the two began workshopping songs together early, acoustically, and both felt the tunes lacking. Neil eventually worked out a particular song that warranted an electric guitar, and from there the album gained its spark. Said Lanois of this point "I always felt that there was something in him that hadn't come out to this point, and that guitar wasn't getting it."
Production was held at a mansion Lanois was living in at the time at Silverlake, in Los Angeles. Upon Young's arrival, Lanois gifted him with a guitar he had modified specifically for this project; an old, all-mahogony Guild, with an LR Baggs soundhole pickup, and fitted with an AKG C24 (a stereo microphone) that was split out to two separate Fender amplifiers, one of which featured an octave slicer. Young took to the guitar instantly, trusting his producer with the sound, and himself with the songs. While most of the guitar is recorded on his Gretsch White Falcon, this special build takes centre stage in "Love and War" and "Peaceful Valley Boulevard"
All tracks featured on Le Noise are recorded as complete, live takes with zero overdubs, inside the living room and hallways of a spacious mansion in Los Angeles.
the man really doesn't like his MP3s overdubs.
Young plays complete guitar parts and sings all vocal parts live and Lanois performs effects changes and creates loops on the fly with a litany of fx and stomp boxes, such as a Lexicon Prime Time, or a TC Electronics Fireworx. These effected tracks were recorded separately and mixed down later to create the layered sound of the album. As with Lanois' Black Dub project, the recording of each track is filmed, and in the case of Le Noise the filming of the album was released as promotional videos for "Angry World", and "Love and War". The videos for those and the remaining songs were made available online after the release of the album.
The album's six electric tracks really set the tone for the entire piece, and do in some ways creative weird Neil-Only sub genre of folk; electro-grunge-folk.
It starts off strongly with "Walk With Me", Young defiantly marching into this new territory, thick, lush-yet-crunchy chords leading the way. The end minute-plus loop of distorted guitar harmonics and clipped vocals from the song serve as a good preview of what's to come, and how it sounds. "Angry World" and "Sign of Love" fall very much under this same umbrella, and serve up very tasty, spacey morsels for your earbuds.
The acoustic tracks provide good interludes from aptly titled earlier tracks. The electronic-grunge loop idea is good, but certainly is aided by the breaks offered by these two offerings. "Love and War" is a quiet little strummed number with a hint of spanish flair. It's a touching little offering about some of the more basic aspects of humanity. "Peaceful Valley Boulevard"is the other acoustic offering, and an interesting pro-environment melancholic piece with a nice chord structure, but a little too religious for me.
Over all, this is a particularly interesting sonic tapestry woven by two particularly talented Canadian icons. The songs are classic Neil Young with signature Neil style all over them, but with a particularly refreshing twist - both for his sound, and the overall solo rocker album in general. The tone of the album isn't overall somber, but is at times mournful, defiant, and lonesome. The resulting product is something that sounds both timeless and modern, a quality that's very difficult to attaint in this era.
Stand-Out Tracks:
- "Walk With Me"
This one was a great choice for an opener in terms of quality of the overall track, and it's over all suggestion of the offering you're about to listen to. From the tremolo on the vocals at parts "I lost some people I was travelling with" to the classic foot-stompin' Neil Young guitar, this one has it all.
- "Hitchhiker"
Neil Young had been playing this one for decades, and in playing this track for Lanois on the first day, he set the tone for the album they were about to make. Like so many aspects of this album, the amount of time it's taken to get here is definitely audible, and in the case of this track makes it all the better. Sentimentality for Toronto mention aside, this song is an honest representation of a fast-lived life that really tonally represents most of thus album.
- "Angry World"
The chorus riff is huge - that chorus riff is Rust Never Sleeps good. The melody is among the hookiest of the entire album. It's just a sweet sounding song about how different people see the world. It too is classic Neil, and in so many ways represents him in a way a solo record should.
Trivia:
-When Lanois was contacted by Young about working on this record, he was living in a casino in Las Vegas, working with Brendan Flowers of The Killers and "surviving on margaritas."
-Neil would only perform on the three days proceeding the full moon. Said Lanois "The thing with Neil is he only works the three days before the full moon. He says that you are at your most creative during that time... In all he only came in eleven days, four times over four months."
- "Peaceful Valley Boulevard" was written over the course of an hour, and is meant to be a "history of the environment of the midwest."
- A fisherman in a bar that Neil frequents suggested he write a song called "It's an Angry World" - hence the fisherman in "Angry World"
Well everybody, that'll conclude this week's Monday Morning Commute Album review. Not sure what I'll be listening to next week, but I'm sure you'll be hearing about it. Check back next week and see - I've got to go get ready for a Leafs' game.
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