anyone have an opinion? only two songs into it, but my reaction so far:

Where le HELL is le rhythm section!?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-09-28 22:58 by T&A.

No rhythm section at all, dear T&A.

It's Neil and his guitar, to the bone. And Daniel Lanois "behind" him.
I didn't hear it yet, which are your first impressions and feelings?

Alex

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Ale67
No rhythm section at all, dear T&A.

It's Neil and his guitar, to the bone. And Daniel Lanois "behind" him.
I didn't hear it yet, which are your first impressions and feelings?

Alex

yeah, i know - i guess i'm commenting on some of l'electric tracks that sound very strange with no bass nor drums...trying something new, i realize. takes a little adjustment to get used to. le voice and le lyrics are fine so far. lanois doesn't seem to dominate le sound du noise, too...so that's good...

it seems we'll have a different neil young from now on. with the loss of ben keith, there's 70% of his repertoire that he'll never do with a band ever again.

Neil Young talks about his new ‘folk-metal’ album
Greg Kot Chicago Tribune

Neil Young set out to make a solo acoustic album when he called up his friend Daniel Lanois to do some recording earlier this year at the producer's home studio, an early 20th century mansion overlooking Silver Lake in California.

When they finished, they came up with something beyond what either of them could have imagined. Young reaches for a new genre classification to describe the album, Le Noise, due out Tuesday.

"It's folk-metal," he says with a laugh. "We got this sound on the guitar that was very exciting to us. There's the singularity of a folk performance on the guitar, but with a heavy-metal civilization of sound around it."

If Le Noise has any antecedent in the Young catalog, it's the electric guitar experiments he brought to Arc, the instrumental companion to his 1991 Weld live album.

"That was just a bunch of noise we were having fun with," Young says. "This is about songs built on riffs. Dan loved those riffs, and they gave him something to hang the sound on."

Lanois, who has worked with artists ranging from U2 and Bob Dylan to Willie Nelson and Peter Gabriel, had never recorded with Young. He had been working on new approaches to shaping sound in the studio for several years with engineer Mark Howard when Young called.

The singer was inspired by the way Lanois was simultaneously audio recording and video recording performances in his studio, creating a distinctive look and sound that straddled cutting-edge technology and organic, performance-based music. Indeed, the video accompanying the Le Noise album is stunning — a shadow play of stark black-and-white images that documents the live recording and enhances it with evocative lighting.

But the core of the album is its extraordinary sound: a wide-screen intimacy conjured by just a voice and a guitar. Lanois had a surprise waiting for Young when he walked into his studio for the first time. The producer handed the singer a tricked-out acoustic guitar that made it sound like a small orchestra: a beefed-up bass response on the lower two strings, a pickup that recreates the sound of the human voice and allows it to loop and echo through the song, and a tremolo amplifier.

"You get four dimensions of sound out of one acoustic guitar, and I thought it might inspire him to play a certain way," Lanois says. "We got the clarity of the guitar with a rich, beautiful bottom, a great subsonic sound with no mumbo-jumbo. It started with that sound on that guitar and we recorded two songs. Then, at the end of the first session, we went electric on the song 'Hitchhiker.' That's when things really started getting interesting."

The hollow-body electric guitar was channelled through two amplifiers, one clean-sounding and the other for tremolo effect. Lanois saw even greater potential: "We covered both ends of the sound spectrum with the guitar. It's got this cutting, razor-drill sound and this beautiful bass tone with sweet melody on the other end."

Young, not prone to hyperbole in interviews, was blown away by the guitar sounds Lanois was able to capture: "It sounded like God."

The songwriter brought several songs into the session and wrote a few more in between visits to Lanois' house, each recording session taking place under a full moon.

"Neil has said he does good work when there's a full moon," Lanois says, "so who am I to argue?"

Whether it was the guitars, the setting or the alignment of the planets, Le Noise is one of Young's finest recordings. Its merger of violence and plaintiveness provides a striking backdrop for the singer's meditations on themes that have obsessed him for decades: on making love last past the first rush of romance, the corruption of the planet, his own search for redemption and clarity. On "Hitchhiker," he chronicles his life as a string of abusive episodes with drugs, and winds up grateful that he's still standing with a partner who loves him.

Mortality drapes itself over the songs. In the last nine months, two of Young's closest collaborators died: filmmaker Larry "L.A." Johnson and multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Keith.

Keith's death leaves a hole in Young's touring band that the singer believes he can never fill.

"There is about 70 per cent of my repertoire that I will never do again (with a band)," Young says. "There is no sense in trying to redo what was already great. There's no payoff in that. That's not what I'm about.

"I'm thankful to have known Ben and played with him for 40 years. He was one of my best friends, and I miss him very much. I don't see myself playing those songs with a band in the future. I can play them by myself, but I can't play them with a band. I just don't think I could handle it. I don't know anybody who can do what he did. It closes a door on a period of my life, and it also opens up a giant space for me to be creative in the future."

Le Noise is in many ways the first step into that future, an album unlike any the 64-year-old artist has ever made. "It started out as this simple, acoustic record," Lanois said, "and it became this other thing, a fabulous body of work."

"There is about 70 per cent of my repertoire that I will never do again (with a band)," Young says. "There is no sense in trying to redo what was already great. There's no payoff in that. That's not what I'm about."

I wish Jagger would realize that...

The first time through I was like WTF? Second time through I loved it. IMO, his best album since Mirror Ball. Neil takes it to the ditch again!

Ross

"I don't see myself playing those songs with a band in the future. I can play them by myself, but I can't play them with a band. I just don't think I could handle it. I don't know anybody who can do what he did. It closes a door on a period of my life, and it also opens up a giant space for me to be creative in the future."


Is Neil referring to all the material he and his band used to play onstage together? Would it be safe to assume that Neil will not perform with a band again?

Probably old Neil has listened to some songs from young Billy...

I just sampled this album on iTunes. I am intrigued after hearing so much about it. I fear if I get it, I'll just be tempted to bring it upstairs and add bass and drums! Some of those songs would, whether Neil thinks he wants to play them with a band or not, sound great with Crazy Horse. Maybe he'll release another version called "Le Noise Unraw" with bass and drums dubbed in.

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Justin
"I don't see myself playing those songs with a band in the future. I can play them by myself, but I can't play them with a band. I just don't think I could handle it. I don't know anybody who can do what he did. It closes a door on a period of my life, and it also opens up a giant space for me to be creative in the future."


Is Neil referring to all the material he and his band used to play onstage together? Would it be safe to assume that Neil will not perform with a band again?

I think he's meaning all the stuff that Ben Keith used to contribute to; so pretty much anything in a band setting without Crazy Horse. I can understand where he's coming from.

Le Noise is a great album in my opinion, easily his best since Sleeps With Angels and possibly even in my Top 10 Neil Young records (not sure though). Love the new sound, but Tate, I'd be interested in hearing it with bass and drums.

Hope it's good. The MEZ loves Neil, but didn't care for Fork In The road at all! MEZ

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Ross
The first time through I was like WTF? Second time through I loved it. IMO, his best album since Mirror Ball. Neil takes it to the ditch again!

Bought it saturday together with Ronnie`s Feel Like Playing. Listened to it before Ronnie`s and was disappointed and bored. Expected more with Daniel L. So I have to give him a second chance..Till then Ronnie is much more entertaining.

I listened to about five songs and figured it wwas to 'novel' to bear repeated listenings. Albums like this are why the good lord gave us CD burners.

well ,i got to see neil solo back in may and he played acoustic for the first two songs and then started playing new songs from his upcoming solo album and i will tell you i liked it a lot .neil is one of the few people that can do this along with bob and bruce.to me they have something to say with there words thru there music .very hard to do one person and one guitar solo , no hiding behind a band just you and your guitar .to me the ultimate performance and to be able to come across the audience and to keep them in your palm .like i said in my book only the three greats can do this ,bob dylan , bruce springsten,and neil young .

I think it's a great album. Of course he's made better ones but what do you expect? He has given us at least 5 absolute classic albums during the last 40 years. He keeps challenging himself and his audience all the time. Likewise on this album. Love it or leave it.

2010 has been an amzing yr musically for me. i've bitched to friends for yrs that most music recorded after 2000 basically sucks. but first i got exile with bonus songs , three great albums by the black crowes ( before the frost,until the freeze, and croweology) tom petty and the heartbreaker's mojo album, john mellencamp's no better than this, and now neil young's le'noise. hopefully more artist will get their creative juices flowing once more.

I love it. His best since Silver And Gold

LOOK FORWARD TO HEAR...

Magnificent & powerful Le Noise!!
Very spiritual album with some incredibles songs such "Walk with me", "Angry World" and a masterpiece and the BEST ONE called "love and war". Rest of the songs are okay "Sign of love" reverbs from above you and "Someones Gonna Rescue You" Lanois tecniques and bring us all that sounds from "No line on the horizon" and majority of the productions of Lanois (Power Spot by Jon Hasell and all that atmospehere in Theatre by Willie Nelson so mistic and spiritual).
Hitchhicker looks like ruled out song and recycled again, and Peacefull Valley Boulevard and Rumblin' and electric tune such "Trans" songs.
The overall impression to me is a GREAT ALBUM! Lanois has scratched out Neil´s personality and has found new bends...
In short, another punch over the table of this great and magnificent artist called Neil Young, it´s surprising and incredible this late of his career surprise us with this album, OLÉ!!!!!

Carlitos
Tenerife

"Hitchhicker looks like ruled out song and recycled again, and Peacefull Valley Boulevard and Rumblin' and electric tune such "Trans" songs."

What did you mean by that?

I meant Hitchhicker was a old song recycled ove here from him and Peacefull Valley Blvd and Rumbling are songs like Trans sound.

I am completely hooked on Noise. It's fantastic, innovative, bold, comprehensive, risk-taking, advanced, intimate, yet energetic. A complete reinvention of rock in the middle of 2010. The melodies of always supported on sounds coming out from who knows where with a stunning reverbs, more eclectic than ever and the magic of a single instrument out everything: the rhythm, arrangements and solos. It is impossible to categorize because never before has done something similar. It is the gateway to new sounds you teleport. Neil Young has always been a guy ahead of its time but now 64, has been a difficult to measure. Good music is measured by the feelings it generates, not virtuosity. Neil Young is the most anti-virtuoso is capable of generating feelings (the best and the worst). With Le Noise to me has regained after a weaked "Fork In The Road."

Carlitos
Tenerife

I totally agree with you, great album. Hitchhiker was actually written in 1974 and predates Like An Inca - it's even better I think!