Neil Young Music:

Editorial Review:
The Youngian reaction principle--which dictates that our hero follow commercial monsters (After the Goldrush/Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps) with willfully difficult busts (Time Fades Away, Hawks & Doves)--finally kicks into effect after a long string of straightahead bestsellers. The man's unpredictability has been a major reason he's remained vital for nigh on 30 years, so it's good to see he's still cranky enough to serve up these raw, sloppy, and, for hardcore fans, invigorating jam sessions with his fave band. --Jeff Bateman

Broken Arrow Reviews:
Ragged Glory, indeed...
2008-10-24 - Underrated album with superb long rockers followed by shorter, haunting songs. The only misstep is the last track, a lethargic live version of Baby What You Want Me To Do that goes on too long. The ragged production gives the songs a trippy, hallucinatory quality. The strength of the songs gives the album an impressive consistency and mood. Big Time, Slips Away, Scattered, and Music Arcade are especially memorable. Great album for driving, kicking back, parties or just to revel in the magic of Neil Young's musical spirit. Achieves a perfect balance between the melancholy and the thunderous.

You're strange, but don't change
2008-08-25 - Rock stars have a well known dilemma, whether to repeat the things that brought them success, that fans tend to want more of, and that they're usually good at but can lead to a rut, or to try new things. Neil Young does both in spades, moving between his old styles and all sorts of new experiments. This album falls more into the repeat camp, which is fine with me. He's good at the grunge guitar jams and the other Crazy Horse stuff, and I want more of it.

Such dilemmas and other issues of growing older in the music business may have been on Young's mind as he was turning 50. The chorus of the first song, "Big Time," is "I'm still livin' the dream we had / For me it's not over." It begins with his trip from Ontario to LA to join the big-time music scene there. The album title, Broken Arrow, is the title of one of his early songs for Buffalo Springfield (see here), an experimental piece that deals with stardom and some personal imagery that seems to allude to dreams already lost. "Could you tell that the empty-quivered, / Brown-skinned Indian on the banks / That were crowded and narrow, / Held a broken arrow?" Years later, Young half-explained, "It's an image of being very scared and mixed up. The broken arrow is an Indian sign of peace after losing a war. A broken arrow usually means that somebody has lost a lot." It's an image that he lives with, on his ranch named Broken Arrow. It's hard to say exactly what either song is getting at, but in "Big Time" he speaks of "a gold mine," "the enemy inside of me," "that youthful fountain."

"Loose Change" seems to work in a similar vein, speaking of roads in all directions:

"Too many distractions
Got to get back home
Get into something solid
Get out of the zone
Some roads bring renewal
Some roads hide and wait
Some roads promise everything
And steal your fuel away."

From there, there's more talk of highways, thinking about living, and the last studio cut (there's a live track tacked on) ends, "I really didn't mean to stay / As long as I have / So I'll be movin' on." Hard to say how much we should read into such things.

Though these cuts have much of the sound of some of his early work, they don't have the same intensity or juice of the best of it, not on the angry, spooky or any other side. And, what probably follows by some musical logic, they seem to me to lack some of the musical edge that some of his best had back when, to be less inspired in their jams, tunes, rambles and so on. No surprise there, as when he made this album Young (it appears) was living a more settled and happier life, relatively speaking, with different challenges. And not too much of a disappointment, because the songs are still very good, have good energy and vibe. I love his overall sound on this album.

The first three tracks each include guitar jams, so they average over eight minutes each. The longest, and most repetitious, is on "Loose Change." If you listen closely, following the shadings of the churning along, it works pretty well, otherwise it can seem tedious. I particularly like "Slip Away," which combines the grungy guitar haze with a dreamy, wistful vocal haze.

"Changing Highways" has some of that country vibe. Catchy, nice beat. Good guitar groove on "Scattered." "This Town" is a chugging trifle, enjoyable enough, with short non-fuzzed guitar solos. "Music Arcade" is Young by himself whispering a simple tune and playing an acoustic guitar. He's good at that, though it's very redundant.

I especially like the last track, an 8-minute live recording of Jimmy Reed's blues "Baby, What You Want Me to Do." Taken from a series of little live shows at bars on the West Coast, this has the basics of a good performance: a great groove, a fine song, and momentum. Even though it is eight minutes long, and has a laid back pace, nothing drags or sags. It has maybe too much of a good thing in the ambiance of the bar, since it appears (by design, probably) to have been recorded from someone's lap in the audience. That makes the chatter and bottle clinking as distinct as the music, which is rather distant, but it still works.

If you like LPs, this one might be worth getting in that format, if you can find it. It has an extra song. And you can actually read the liner notes, which require a microscope for the CD version.

A strong four stars.

Leviathan and wiser
2007-07-01 - Old man music - grizzled, abstruse, uncompromised.

Often maddeningly unambitious (the last track is slumming), all the better to stun the senses with strategic bolts of craft mastery, honed 35+ years. Sweet sounds quietly adorn the brighter cuts. "This Town" and "Changing Highways," however granite the chords, are pure saloon hoedowns - exquisite hippie soul. "Slip Away," more a scribble than a song, nevertheless offers the savviest guitar solo, quasiquoting "Norwegian Wood" and coaxing ambiguous spirituality from a thudding miasma. The executive number is "The Big Time," unfurling cosmic measures of consoling vocals and punishing guitars, terrifyingly heartfelt.

Tired, still epic.

monotonia incandescente
2006-09-30 - neil young a lo largo del tiempo nos ha sorprendido por su talento, vehemencia y audacia...tambien es cierto que a veces, en merito a su afan prolifico de permanente busqueda, suele ofrecer material de dificil acceso para el publico. hemos escuchado discos de young adelantados a su tiempo, incomprendidos en su aparicion y venerados luego, pero a mi sincera opinion, este no es el caso.....broken arrow no deja de ser un intento fallido de remontar al grunge. canciones monotonas, desprolijas, inconclusas que se pierden en divagues eternos..sonido atronador por momentos, muy sucio por otros..en fin, no estamos hablando de una obra que merezca mucha atencion....

An album for meditation and soul searching
2006-08-25 - This is actually my favorite Neil Young album (which may say something about me). I love it not for its quantity of great songs or tracks, but for its incredible depth and mystery. The image of American Indians on the cover and the title--a broken arrow, representing peace--indicates an appreciation of history and the fact that human thought and emotion over the ages is all tied together.

These ideas, of course, are recurring themes in Neil Young's work (overcoming generation gaps, imagining life in other times and places, and working through complex and difficult memories). It is music for lonely people, lost souls, or those searching for meaning in a dark world. At certain times, it is almost eerie, as though he is channeling spiritual messages.

Perhaps the final song, his version of "Baby What You Want Me to Do" could really be interpreted in a spiritual way. It could mean that his muse is a higher power that was telling him what to do when writing and performing the music (like the double-meaning of George Harrison's unintentional channeling of "My Sweet Lord...He's So Fine.") Young might have also chosen to do a cover of "Baby..." because the words of being in a state of flux and turmoil echo the lyrics of other tracks such as "Scattered (Let's Think About Livin')."

It is not an album to be listened to at a party or with commotion. Just as one wouldn't want to meditate or read under those circumstances, one probably shouldn't try to connect with this kind of music with distractions. As he says in "Music Arcade" : "Yeah, I'm talking 'bout getting down...Take it easy...There's no one around..."