Neil Young - Trans
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Free Music Notes for Trans
Free Music Review: Neil, Transformed
Hit: 4 Stars
Okay, "Trans" isn't your "typical" Neil Young record. Then again, given his amazing diversity it is hard to say exactly what IS typical for Neil. "Trans" gets a lot of heat because it began Neil's strange journey through the 1980's, in which he tried out just about every style of popular music around. Suprisingly, the weird synthesizer sound of "trans" not only fit him better than his other stylistic detours, but also showed him as being ahead of his time making electronic music. Call it "Nine Inch Neil." The highlights of "Trans" are a pair of excellent mid-tempo rockers, "Sample and Hold" and "Transformer Man," both recorded with the strange digitalized vocals that so turned off many of Neil's longtime fans. The former rocks strongly while the latter is one of Young's prettiest melodies (for proof, check out the amazing accoustic version of the song on Neil's "Unplugged" album). "Little Thing Called Love" (with normal singing) is the kind of simple uptempo love song the Neil can write in his sleep, while the reworking of "Mr. Soul" is very adventurous. The one complaint with "Trans" is that it is too short at nine songs to be a truly fulfilling album. Otherwise, while not among Neil's best works, it is far from being the stinker that many accused it of being.
Free Music Review: You will love this or Hate this CD (or at least 2/3 of it)
Hit: 4 Stars
Okay you hippies (assuming you would be the only ones looking up Neil Young CD's) go out and tell all your friends who continued to evolve past the 60's to check out this album. Mr. Young decided at the time that Johnny Rotten had been sufficiently buried, and Kraftwerk was holding the shovel. His version of electronica (awesome in concert!) was nothing groundbreaking at the time (other than the fact that he did it), and consists of his computerized voice, a beat not too removed from disco, simple synth, and the occasional one note Neil Young guitar solo. Why rate this album so high? Because the songs are great! I recently compressed my favorite songs from my ancient 100+ vinyl collection onto two minidisks and three songs from this LP went on it(and fourth was knocked off only because of time). Why else when asked to submit a song to a compilation of Mr. Young's work, Sonic Youth covered one of these.Damned to hell with the record company exec who insisted that Neil put three Neil Youngish songs on the album - they will be relegated to the >> button on your player. These songs are the only reason I do not give this CD a five.
Free Music Review: A must for '80s synth junkies
Hit: 4 Stars
I really like this album. I was a synth/electronica junkie in the '80s, and this album was unlike anything I'd ever heard: techno with a ton of soul; thick synths but with real, big-sounding drums and good crunchy guitar work. The first and last tracks sound more like typical Neil Young. On most of the rest, almost all the vocals are done through vocoders, and it's the vocoder that gives this album its techno feel. Best tracks, in my opinion: the heavy-handed and lyrically clever "Computer Cowboy" with its crunchy, hard-hitting guitar riffs (100% vocoder vocals); the bizzarre remake of "Mr. Soul", with its flanged lead vocal with vocoder harmonization and wild guitar solo; and the lighthearted but uptempo and lyrically entertaining "We R In Control" (100% vocoder vocals). I give 4 stars instead of 5 because Sample and Hold is not the original, but a remix with most of the soul stripped out. I agree with one of the other reviewers here; why do they do that? The slow, completely non-electronic, non-techno "Hold On To Your Love" (0% vocoder vocals) is a strange and seemingly out of place addition to this album.Free Music Review: Neil embraces technology
Hit: 4 Stars
It was so unexpected of Neil to turn out an album like this, and it was even more surprising that it was so entertaining, wedged as it was between his rockabilly album Everybody's Rockin' and his defiantly country album Old Ways. The updated, vocoder-laden version of Mr. Soul wasn't so great, but many of the other songs score bulls-eyes using this vocal device, most notably, Transformer Man, Sample and Hold, and Computer Age. Not all of the songs are Kraftwerk-influenced, either; the opening track, Little Thing Called Love, is a very upbeat and effective track with good "regular Neil" vocals and an excellent guitar line, too. My favorite song is the epic album-closer, Like an Inca, with the memorable line "Who put the bomb on the sacred altar?" Seeing as how this is still just available on import, the album still doesn't get heard by an American audience in the way it should. Too bad. It was a signpost album of the 80's for me.Free Music Review: Trans-formation!
Hit: 4 Stars
The thing to remember about Neil Young is that he's not to be buried in one style of music;he prefers to surprise and challenge his audience. Believe me;David Geffen and Co. were more than a little surprised when Neil dropped his electronic masterpiece,TRANS,on their laps.TRANS explores the relationship between man and machine;how one uses the other to survive and thrive.SAMPLE AND HOLD is a satirical view on getting the perfect (manufactured)love partner.TRANSFORMER MAN represents Neil trying to communicate with his impaired son.WE R IN CONTROL shows us how much we are devoted to technology.The cold,keyboard driven remake of MR SOUL shows the widening gap between rock star and fan.The songs I'm not fond of are,oddly enough,the one's that sound like regular Neil Young.Predictably the critics and fans at the time couldn't understand what Neil Young was on about;now TRANS can be seen as an important work in the Neil Young canon.