NEIL YOUNG : BEFORE AND AFTER

  1. I'm The Ocean
  2. Homefires
  3. Burned
  4. On The Way Home
  5. If You Got Love
  6. A Dream That Can Last
  7. Birds
  8. My Heart
  9. When I Hold You In My Arms
  10. Mother Earth
  11. Mr. Soul
  12. Comes a Time
  13. Don't Forget Love

Label : Reprise

Release Date : December 8, 2023

Length : 47:49

Review (AllMusic) : The very title Before and After suggests Neil Young is in a contemplative mood on this acoustic set from 2023 and, sure enough, a good portion of the record finds him looking back at his very beginnings. A number of songs he wrote for Buffalo Springfield are here, balanced by a few rarities -- chief among them "If You Got Love," which was pulled from Trans at the last minute -- selections from Sleeps with Angels, Mirror Ball, and Ragged Glory, albums that retrospectively can be seen as written during a particularly restless middle age. Before and After isn't agitated or electric, though. The album features no other musician than Young, who supports himself with an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and, occasionally, a pump organ. The starkness of the arrangements helps draw attention to the distance between the origin of a song and Young's present. Now creeping toward 80, he doesn't sound fragile, yet his vocals display some age-related raggedness. Embracing his weathered, keening voice, Young highlights the tender yearning that runs throughout these songs. They may have been written at various stages in his life, but they're united by his iconoclasm, his dedication to the earth, and his quest for universal love, common threads that are emphasized by how the 13 songs are segued as a suite, allowing listeners to immerse themselves in Before and After as a holistic experience.

Review (The Guardian) : At 78, “Shakey” is showing no signs of slowing down, although he seems more comfortable with looking back. Recorded over the course of four shows on his recent Coastal Tour, Before and After is a live album with a difference: 13 songs from throughout Young’s career are performed, without audience noise, in a continuous 48-minute sequence. The acoustic-based selections cover seven decades and are mostly lesser known, although the minimal instrumentation and similar themes, such as the passage of time and a changing world, mean they complement each other well. The format certainly suits I’m the Ocean: the track was originally recorded with Pearl Jam on 1995’s Mirror Ball, and removing the electric guitars reveals more of its beauty. The biggest curiosity is If You Got Love, recorded for 1982’s electronic album Trans but not included on it: the gentle melody transfers perfectly to pump organ and occasional harmonica. Elsewhere, the piano playing on My Heart and A Dream That Can Last is magically fragile and delicate. Burned (“no use running away, and there’s no time left to stay”) certainly packs a different energy from a seventysomething than from the 20-year-old Young was when he recorded it with Buffalo Springfield in 1966, while Mother Earth’s environmental message remains as relevant as ever. There’s a lovely intimacy and openness to songs such as When I Hold You in My Arms and while his voice has lost some of the old youthful power, it has gained in tenderness, nuance, humanity and warmth.

Review (DIY) : Few artists have as rich a back catalogue as Neil Young. Under his own name – discounting his recordings with legends like Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash – he numbers ‘Before and After’ as his 45th studio album, 53 years after his first. But instead of new songs, here he presents rerecorded deep cuts from across his career. Some come from classics, such as ‘After the Gold Rush’ track ‘Birds’; while album closer ‘Don’t Forget Love’ was released as recently as 2021, on ‘Barn’. Each recording features minimal instrumentation, mostly Neil’s trademark warbling high tenor and warm harmonica set either to an acoustic guitar, piano or organ. The songs are rarely improved upon, with the fidelity to ruggedness giving the songs the feel of half-finished demos, but the songwriting itself is, of course, stellar. ‘Burned’, from Buffalo Springfield’s debut, maintains its jauntiness, while ‘Mother Earth’ carries a prophetic weight in its rich, bassy organ. ‘If You Got Love’ serves as an extra surprise, having been previously unreleased, and its simplicity and sincerity proves that after all these years, Neil Young still writes with the same heart of gold that earned him his name in the first place.