Neil Young

Silver & Gold

The king of rock-n-roll?

Review Score:

(8/10)
Sometime ago I read a review written by (I think) Kurt Loder for Rolling Stone. In the review for what I believe was "Ragged Glory", he proclaimed Neil Young the King of Rock-n-Roll. I didn't disagree then, I don't disagree now.

Silver and Gold is what I like to call "nice Neil". "Evil Neil" is my favorite side. When Neil is wearing his full Mr. Hyde outfit, look out. But what's great about Neil is he can make a "mellow" CD, and who's to complain.

Silver and Gold is not my favorite Neil recording, nor will it be. I still reserve "Rust Never Sleeps" for that honor, but there are certainly some great songs here. Maybe "Harvest Moon II" is the best way to describe this. I've read where Neil compares it to "After the Gold Rush", which is fair, but Silver&Gold is too minimalist instrumentally to be a parallel.

"Razor Love" is the tremendous standout here. Beautiful lyric so typical of Neil and so very nearly un-approachable save for a few other song writers. The one-two punch of "Razor Love" and "Without Rings" to end the CD makes me push the start button again.

"Daddy went Walkin'" is the only song I really don't like here, so I gave it 4 stars because it ruins (in my opinion) a perfect "nice Neil" session. Much the same way "Old king" did on Harvest Moon. But even a King can't be perfect everytime.

More Reviews: