Neil Young - Living with War
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Free Music Notes for Living with War
Free Music Review: Desperate Times Call For Desperate Sounds
Hit: 5 Stars
...and this CD sounds Desperate, in the best way possible. This isn't a time for visionary dreamscapes, and Neil isn't about to write another subtle 'After the Goldrush' now. Subtlety, allegory, and special effects are passé, as the recent output from the movie industry has indicated (read: this is 1970, the cycle has repeated, remember the 'M*A*S*H' movie, 'Chinatown', and 'The Deer Hunter'...now it's 'Da Vinci Code', 'Flight 93', etc).
The point I'm trying to make is that raw Neil is relevant again.
He hasn't approached the 'market', the 'market' has approached him.
And, the 'market' wants an end to a bulls**t war.
Good on 'ya, Neil. You've got patience.
As for the music, you'll find precedent for almost everything here...'Families' sounds a lot like Springsteen's 'No Surrender', and 'Let's Impeach The President' is based around the same chord sequence as Arlo Guthrie's 'City of New Orleans' (no accident in either case, maybe permission was given along the line). This does not mean the album is lacking in 'originality' (Neil Young, in the live album Year of the Horse says 'It's all the same song!', so the fact that 3-5 chord sequences have all been used up is something he freely acknowledges)...
What the precedence does mean is that Neil Young has tapped into a primal vein here.
The choir is great here, also.
Free Music Review: Neil Picks Up His Guitar And Tells It The Way He See's It
Hit: 5 Stars
I read a review in one of our tabloid newspapers in the UK at the weekend (13th May 06) that rated this album as the CD of the week and one of his best ever. As a fully fledged fan of Neil Young from day one it touched a nerve. I must admit it's been tough at times living with the man, but he deserves his money, it has been a long hard road for him and we fans have made him rich for a reason. We like to listen to what he has to say. We may not agree and we may not like to hear what he has to say, but we listen never the less. You can't stop a voice, no matter what some of your reviewers seem to think, especially one who always has a message somewhere in the song.
Now to this album. If we consider that 'Ohio' was written and recorded in a day, so the story goes, then that is what Neil does best. He feels enough to pick up his guitar, write what is in his mind, and keeping the message simple. It may not be pretty at times as in 'Tonights The Night' but there is a message. I've listened about 20 times to 'Living With War' and slowly but surely the message is getting through. Sure, he recorded the whole album in one day, and it could have been better, but that's his style of Rock and Roll, instant and from the heart. Let's thank Neil for picking up his guitar again and telling it the way he see's it. I look forward to the DVD when he can have some more of my money. Regards Philip Arrowsmith (UK)
Free Music Review: Not for the faint of heart
Hit: 5 Stars
This is electric Neil, not acoustic Neil.
I'm one of those people who is (I suppose) middle of the road and when i heard about this album was interested in how Neil would deliver his 'message'. Well, it's direct. Brutally so.
[...]
Shock and Awe is an all time classic Neil song (think Rockin in the Free World on steroids). Bank on that. The Restless Consumer is another great song. Families is a toe tapper. Let's Impeach the President is, well, a pretty decent song (musically a cousin to Powderfinger) but the lyrics are -well wow (Flip/Flop). Listen yourself. There are very few weak moments on this album. This isn't Harvest, Rust or Everybody Knows - but it's a good CD if you like electric Neil.
As someone wrote earlier, this may be the best protest 'album' ever recorded. It is sure to elicit some type of response from you, positive or negative. That's why it gets 5 stars. I highly recommend this album.
If you ever (even if just for a brief moment) think this country is going back to the days of "no taxation without representation", you should listen to this - even if just to admire what someone can do with his art with first amendment protection.
Unlike the brave "A Kids Review", I think we're all capable of knowing this is Neil's perception - not the person reading this (or writing it for that matter).
Free Music Review: Great Album
Hit: 5 Stars
This is Neil Young's best album in years and a throw back to his Crazy Horse days, musically speaking. I just saw the CSNY show in Chicago, and GOD, I hope they make a CD or DVD out of that tour. It was beautiful. incredibly, while Young uses a 100-person choir on the studio album, CSN helping Young on most of the songs from LWW on the live tour sounded almost as powerful as the sheer numbers belting out the choruses on the studio recording. Flags of Freedom and Families are right out of the Crazy Horse genre, they could be transposed with Powderfinger or Sedan Delivery. There are other throw-back sounds for vintage Neil Young and his rousing of rabal. For those critics who don't like it because it challenges the establishment, why do you listen to rock-n-roll? Really. And seeing the CSNY show that toward the end featured a montage of all their great protest songs including Neil's and Rockin' in the Free World, this album proves that Young has returned to his roots (and that he truly is the man of action while touring with CSN). It's a rather sad statement of current events that CSNY felt compelled that they had to title their tour "Freedom of Speech." Quite an indictment of modern times and even of some of the critics right here in these reviews who are trying to silence dissent. These songs on this album are reflective of true patriotism. These are the Flags of FREEDOM!Free Music Review: A raw scream of rage straight from the gut
Hit: 5 Stars
Thank you Neil Young, for putting into music what is in my heart. I play it over and over. The title track, "Living with War," is irresistible to me. It communicates exactly what I feel, the anguish that's been growing for three years now, ever since we bombed Baghdad. "I'm living with war in my heart every day," the endless bad news, the ever-climbing body count, the attempts of the Bush admin to silence their critics (Valerie Plame affair) never finding WMDs, the "mission accomplished" landing on an aircraft carrier, the shame I now feel in being an American, the billions and billions of dollars wasted..and on and on, that's what living with war in your heart every day is.
I listen to this CD and it energizes me with rage at the stupidity of our leaders, and the stupidity of our people for electing those leaders (if that's what happened) My favorites are title track, Families, Flags of Freedom, and Let's Impeach the President.
I was also really touched and surprisingly moved by hearing America the Beautiful, a song I first learned in kindergarten and haven't heard in many years. It reminds me that, as disgusted as I am with it, I cannot give up on the USA. I have to try to save her, turn her around. This is my country, my home. I hope we are not past the point of no return. I hope we can be a good country again, someday.