Review: Journey Through the Past: Neil Young’s Before and After

Neil Young
Before and After
Reprise
3.5 Out Of Five Stars

Neil Young is either the most prolific artist on the planet or the most obsessive. Of course, either way, it’s easily understood and he’s happily forgiven given his dense catalog and the generosity he demonstrates by releasing any number of archival offerings at a rate so frequent it’s dazzling in its design.

Young’s newest effort, Before and After, falls somewhere between a revisit and a historical supplement or sorts. It’s comprised of 13 songs culled from his expansive career, among them, such Buffalo Springfield classics as “Mr. Soul,” “Burned,” and “On the Way Home,” all of which are delivered in stripped-down settings that dramatically change the tone and tempo.  

Other offerings are particularly well suited to the acoustic treatment applied here, among them, “Comes A Time,” “Mother Earth” and “Birds” in particular, all of which were originally rendered in a similarly mellow, stargazing style. With that in mind, one has to wonder why Young opted to revisit those particular tracks. No matter though; they continue to rank as among the most timeless tracks in his entire repertoire. 

[RELATED: A Continuing Saga of Love and Meaning Behind Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”]

The previously unreleased “If You Got Love” offers one of the real incentives here, and notably, despite its fairly straight-ahead motif, it also bears one of the album’s richest arrangements, courtesy of pump organ, piano, harmonica, and guitar. 

That said, many of the songs included here could be considered obscurities, numbers known only to Young’s most fastidious fans and followers. “A Dream That Can Last” is but one example, a mournful melody that’s markedly sobering and subdued, as is Young’s trademark tact.

Given that these performances take on a sparse demo-like approach, the intimacy is obvious and revealing, as if the listener is eavesdropping on the artist at a particularly vulnerable moment, or even more likely, while he’s simply opting to run through some songs for his own pleasure and satisfaction. That feeling is compounded by the fact that the tracks merge into one another as if recorded in one quick session. Notably, the album finds legendary producer Lou Adler at the helm, adding to the sense that this is a homecoming of sorts, an informal exchange between longtime pals. 

The older generation, they have something to say, but they better say it fast or get out of the way, Young declares in “When I Hold You In My Arms,” an otherwise affecting love song.  He’s never been reticent to take his own advice. 

Photo by Matt Kincaid/Getty Images