NEIL & THE HORSE : FU##IN' UP

 

  1. City Life (Country Home)
  2. Feels Like A Railroad (River Of Pride) (White Line)
  3. Heart Of Steel (Fu##in' Up)
  4. Broken Circle (Over And Over)
  5. Valley Of Hearts (Love To Burn)
  6. Farmer John
  7. Walkin' In My Place (Road Of Tears) (Mansion On The Hill)
  8. To Follow One's Own Dream (Days That Used To Be)
  9. A Chance On Love (Love And Only Love)

Label : Reprise

Venue : The Rivoli, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Recording Date : November 4, 2023

Length : 68:20

Release Date : April 20, 2024

Review (AllMusic) : In 1990, Neil Young & Crazy Horse got the jump on the grunge movement with their brilliantly scrappy and distortion-coated release Ragged Glory. That record (along with their 1991 tour and live album counterpart Weld) celebrated feedback and volume, using overdriven guitars to deliver some of Young's most spirited and straightforwardly melodic songwriting. FU##IN' UP revisits the songs from Ragged Glory more than 30 years later, reframing them in a live setting that's somehow even more ragged, and just as glorious. The set was captured at an intimate venue in Toronto on November 4, 2023, during a private birthday party. The order of the songs is rearranged to run exactly as the track listing for Ragged Glory did, presenting each song with a new title taken from parts of the tune's lyrics. For instance, opening track "City Life," played later on in the concert, is a take on Ragged Glory's first song, "Country Home," much as the rocky push of "To Follow One's Own Dream" breathes new life into "Days That Used to Be." "Farmer John," a cover song, retains its original title, and Ragged Glory finale "Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" is absent from FU##IN' UP. The performances are loose and carefree, with Young and his longtime collaborators (bassist Billy Talbot, drummer Ralph Molina, and both Micah Nelson and Nils Lofgren trading off on guitar and piano duties) sounding comfortable with the songs and each other, and unconcerned with the occasional stretched vocal register or flubbed note. The group stretches out a little more than on record, as well, as Young tries new tricks with his guitar tones and the band injects some exploration into the jammier sections of the tunes. FU##IN' UP feels less like a nostalgic journey through the past and more like good friends learning new things by remembering shared times. It's rough-around-the-edges fun, with the warmth of familiarity and kinship that Neil Young & Crazy Horse have built by playing together for more than half a century.

Review (PopMatters) : Okay, the title of this review is admittedly low-hanging fruit, but who doesn’t love a live album from Neil Young and Crazy Horse? Their concert material on LPs like Rust Never Sleeps (1979) and Live Rust (1979) have become defining artistic statements for the band as well as important documents of shifting tastes and attitudes during the late 1970s. Surprisingly, they managed to bridge a gap between the folk Americana Young had innovated and the then-emergent punk rock scene. Always attuned to the present moment, whether in his politics or debates in the music industry (read: Spotify), Young has never drifted into nostalgia, let alone irrelevance. That said, Fu##in’ Up is something of a trip down memory lane. Consisting of only nine songs but lasting about 65 minutes, this new release is essentially a track-by-track homage to Ragged Glory (1990), the blistering sixth album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. The only song missing from the original record is “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)”, the last song on the LP and its weakest. It didn’t reflect the raucous spirit that preceded it. Its absence here will go unmissed. Recorded in November 2023, reportedly at a private show at the Rivoli in Toronto, Fu##in’ Up highlights Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their best – loose, loud, and long-lasting, but without being long-winded. For reasons that are unclear, all the tracks have been renamed with lyrics from the songs. Crazy Horse have also been revised. Micah Nelson – the son of Willie Nelson – and Nils Lofgren join Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), and Young on this outing. Guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, who appeared on Ragged Glory in addition to Zuma (1975) and other classic Neil Young and Crazy Horse releases, has since retired. Fu##in’ Up wastes no time and even starts with a slight stumble on the first track, “City Life” – originally titled “Country Home” – before Young and Crazy Horse find their groove. There are a few pauses on this album. Banter with the audience, like that found on Live Rust, is practically non-existent. The audience can only be heard in brief moments through cheering, undoubtedly reflecting its small size. In contrast to Live Rust with its cavernous sound and famously passing rainstorm – the crackling thunder complementing the crackling music – Fu##in’ Up more closely resembles the recent archival release, Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021), which is also a club recording. Made in Santa Cruz, California, in 1990, it captures a pivotal moment just prior to the Ragged Glory tour. It is difficult to say what tracks stand out on Fu##in’ Up. I will take all of them. The strongest ones on Ragged Glory, like the road number “White Line” – renamed “Feels Like a Railroad” on this LP – and the garage rock romanticism of “Over and Over” – renamed “Broken Circle” – equally shine here. The third track, “Heart of Steel”, is a reprise of “Fuckin’ Up” from Ragged Glory. Has there ever been a better song of self-reproachment? Other gems include a digressive “Valley of Hearts” (originally “Love to Burn”) at 13 minutes and an equally discursive “Chance on Love” (“Love and Only Love”) at 15 minutes. Their relentless, epic reverb warms you like a bonfire. The lingering question is, why return to this album now? Americana has always been about finding a way through the present by resorting to the past. Bob Dylan turned to 19th-century America on John Wesley Harding (1967) to confront the escalating violence of Vietnam – an approach immediately grasped by Jimi Hendrix with his cover of “All Along the Watchtower” – while Bruce Springsteen sought to explore the ennui of the post-Vietnam era on Nebraska (1982) through ballads that resembled stories drawn from old newspaper articles about small town America. “Why, why do these old songs live so vividly now?” Young asks in the liner notes. “They do to me. I recognize it. Losing it, finding it, losing it…. Take a chance on love. On love, on love.” Drawing from his own lyrics, perhaps the endurance of Ragged Glory has to do with its engagement with this timeless theme: all of these tracks touch upon love in some form, whether for home, a person, or the white lines of the open road. The title Ragged Glory doesn’t refer to the American flag as often assumed but to the undaunted spirit of love. Neil Young and Crazy Horse wear their hearts on their sleeves – or is it their amplifiers? – on this LP as they did on the original. With this perspective in mind, the title Fu##in’ Up has less to do with offhand nihilism and more to do with love’s resilience, no matter how often we might fu## up by disregarding it. A key line on this album comes from “Feels Like a Railroad”: “I’ve been down, but I’m coming back up again.” Despite their garage rock machismo, Neil Young and Crazy Horse are ultimately old-school romantics. They deliver hard-won life lessons amidst their squalling guitars and Molina’s insistent drumbeat. In their own closing words, love and only love will endure.