# Neil Young's "A Letter Home"



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Interesting approach to recording:

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/16/stream-neil-youngs-a-letter-home-now

Cheers

Dave


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

The whole album is streamed there. I listened to about half of 'Early Morning Rain'. Thought it was unlistenable and shut it off. And this is from a lifetime NY fan.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

keto said:


> *The whole album is streamed there. * I listened to about half of 'Early Morning Rain'. Thought it was unlistenable and shut it off. And this is from a lifetime NY fan.


Yes, I should have mentioned that the album was streamed on that site. 

I'm not a huge NY fan, but (like you) I found listening to one song recorded in this fashion was enough for me.

Cheers

Dave


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## fredyfreeloader (Dec 11, 2010)

Never been a fan of NY and that "Early Morning Rain" thingy kind of solidified my thoughts on his music.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

Can't stand the crackles either. Why move backwards? I imaging it is fun as heck to do though.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

keto said:


> The whole album is streamed there. I listened to about half of 'Early Morning Rain'. Thought it was unlistenable and shut it off. And this is from a lifetime NY fan.


Another lifetime NY fan here and I couldn't listen to it either. I'm thinking he made a mistake when he gave up pot. :sSig_Idontgetit:


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I really like some of what Neil Young does, and don't like some of the other stuff--but when he's played as many varied styles as he has--that will happen.

The stuff here, I'm not so big one.
Some of it wasn't that bad, but overall, it wasn't enough to get me to want it.

maybe if he shoved crazy Horse in a phone booth with him.


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

when he hits, there's no one better.
but when he misses...











About halfway through the stream, can't imagine ever craving listening to the album.
But the great thing about Neil is he's always done what he wants. the gold that comes out of that is worth the process.
And I love these preview streams that let you listen before you buy something that will gather dust.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

That brings to mind Reactor from the early 80's. Crazy horse out of control. But like puckhead said, the good more than makes up for the bad.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

Man, I actually kind of like this! Raw, somewhat haunting, stripped right down to just the voice.

Very intersting that, given his fight against CDs' lo fidelity, he has gone so far back to basics. Strangely humanizing to hear the recording medium so up front and present, yet somehow real too.

TG


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

I'm a huge Neil fan, but agree, some of his stuff is just extruciating to listen to

Greendale was not one of my faves


Trans I enjoyed the vocal treatment, funny how everyone is doing that now  but the music was annoying

that's ok though, he does have some stellar stuff, and still puts out stellar stuff


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## surlybastard (Feb 20, 2011)

Love Neil as well, spun the record once and said "that's enough for me". Interesting experiment, and I have the utmost respect for him still taking risks this far along into his career but it's more of a gimmick than a really record. I'm glad I listened to it but I certainly won't be doing so again.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Lincoln said:


> That brings to mind Reactor from the early 80's. Crazy horse out of control. But like puckhead said, the good more than makes up for the bad.


I love Re-ac-tor--I think it's a great album--especially for jamming.
Nothing like 9+minutes of three chords and six words over & over--while that doesn't sound like a lot of fun, it is.

Shots is a cool song.

Cool guitar throughout.

I love it.

[video=youtube;fA6UM0ZM6r4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA6UM0ZM6r4[/video]


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## noman (Jul 24, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> Man, I actually kind of like this! Raw, somewhat haunting, stripped right down to just the voice.
> 
> Very intersting that, given his fight against CDs' lo fidelity, he has gone so far back to basics. Strangely humanizing to hear the recording medium so up front and present, yet somehow real too.
> 
> TG


I agree. Raw and honest, warts and all. I enjoyed it. I love the fact that he doesn't really care what you and I think. Enjoy it if you can and hate it if you can't. The sign of an artist is when they can provoke discussion about their medium.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

noman said:


> I agree. Raw and honest, warts and all. I enjoyed it. I love the fact that he doesn't really care what you and I think. Enjoy it if you can and hate it if you can't. The sign of an artist is when they can provoke discussion about their medium.



Good to know I am not alone! Of course, my favourite NY albums are Tonight's the Night and Time Fades away, so I seem to like his gritty side (not that I am putting the current album on par with these).

TG


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

_____________


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I don't mind it. Not my favourite, but I can listen to it. 

There are a lot of NY bootlegs from the 70's that sound exactly the same as that.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Am I the only guy to note that Young follows up his PONO ultra-high fidelity thing with just about the lowest fidelity you can get? Pretty ironic.

I don't think it'll hold up well on the car stereo, but then I think he's more interested in the concept than in making something that fits everyone's template of the Neil they like. Trans, The Shocking Pinks, and Psychedelic Pill, couldn't have been more different, but the one thing they shared was Young's idea of taking an idea and simply working it as far as he knew how to work it.

The interesting thing about the booth he used was that "letters home" was exactly the way that people used these booths in the days before long-distance calls were available or affordable. You'd record a voice message, and maybe goof around, cut the disc and send the disc off to family, girlfriends, school-mates. Kudos to Jack White for preserving it. They would often be found at county fairs. I'm sure some of your grandparents could tell you they made one at the CNE or PNE.

I guess at the very least he can't be accused of pushing his PONO thing in order to increase sales of his latest album! My guess is that he's also not using any big Martins on this album. So far, it sounds pretty much like budget parlour guitars. And in an interesting way, the complete absence of polish, post-production, instrumentation, and audio quality makes one focus entirely on the songs themselves, like he's peeled everything away _except_ for the song.

Interesting.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

I support anyone who dares to be different. Going with the flow is boring.


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