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List Price: $25.99 | | Label: Wea
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Re-ac-tor Track Listing:
1. Op-er-a Star - Neil Young
2. Surf-er Joe and Moe the Sleaze - Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3. T-Bone - Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4. Get Back on It - Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5. South-ern Pac-i-fic - Neil Young
6. Mo-tor Cit-y - Neil Young
7. Rap-id Tran-sit - Neil Young
8. Shots - Crazy Horse, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Neil Young
Editorial Review:
Japanese remastered reissue of 1981 album packaged in aminiature LP sleeve. Reprise. 2004.
Re-ac-tor Reviews:
DVD Audio review 
2009-08-29 - With all Neil's ventures into improved sound quality, things can get confusing. DVD Audio was Neil's earliest attempt in his 'Because Sound Matters' state of mind. He released 'Harvest' (out of print!) and 'Road Rock #1' in 5.1 surround, and the 4 other titles, 'On The Beach','Re-ac-tor', 'American Stars & Bars' and 'Hawks & Doves' on HDCD and and DVD-A. Please note that these were released in STEREO only. I own all except 'Hawks & Doves'. This one just arrived yesterday.
Back to this DVD-A disc. I was fortunate enough to buy a fairly priced Pioneer DV563A back in 2004 that plays DVD-A and SACD. Still works great and I finally got around to buying this disc. There are enough reviews on the music itself (I personally love anything with Crazy Horse grunge), so about the SOUND. Only warm clean analog vinyl can sound better. I haven't had the chance to listen to blu-ray yet, but DVD-Audio for its time was as close to analog as it got. Somehow warmer sounding than SACD to my ears. It still sounds great with Neil's and Sampedro's guitars jumping out of my old school Advent floor speakers. When prices drop, I'll jump on the blu-ray bandwagon. If you're still interested in hearing DVD-Audio and have the right player and overall set-up, get this and his other DVD-A discs while they're still in print. As I mentioned, 'Harvest' on DVD-A is OOP and some sellers are listing ridiculous prices up to $200. How's that for a 'sound' investment...excuse the pun.
FYI. Now he's just re-released 4 remastered titles at 24 bit 176KHZ as 'NYAORS' (Neil Young Archive Official Release Series) in conjunction with his Archives, Vol. 1. (mp3,HDCD, DVD, and Blu-ray). These include his first eponymous disc through Harvest. I just bought 'After the Gold Rush' and it is a noticeable upgrade from the original thin-sounding release. All in all, it's a good time to be an audiophile Neil Young fan or just a plain old fan.
Enjoy your Neil as he intended his music to be heard....because sound truly does matter.
Loud but a bit weak 
2009-08-01 - First I want to point out that I really rate this at 3.5 not 3 stars but you can only use whole numbers on Amazon I guess. I liked the album alright but the problem was that I mainly liked it when I was drunk which was fairly often way back then so it was played a lot. My first reaction to it was that it was hastily slapped together and was rather sloppy and I still feel that way 25 years later. I wasn't very impressed with sound quality either but I've heard much worse. This album is LOUD so put some padding on your ceiling beforehand for when your head hits it.
OK the songs OPERA STAR is a silly but kind of catchy tune I liked. SURFER JOE AND MOE THE SLEAZE is the best one by far. It's a classic 'weird' neil song with great guitars. I hope I don't ruin it for anyone here - the chorus goes : Come on down for a pleasure cruise - plenty of women and plenty of booze. Now how can any young guy like I was back then not like that idea ? T-BONE is a very loud bluesy song but gets dull very fast with Neil singing the same words over and over (easy to follow if drunk). GET BACK ON IT is kind of a bluesy country song but I can't say it's good even while drunk. SOUTHERN PACIFIC is one I'm mixed on - sometimes I like it and sometimes not. MOTOR CITY is another kind of country flavored song about Detroit auto woes with very loud guitars - pretty mediocre words. RAPID TRANSIT is sort of interesting but his voice is really pretty strained singing it . The last song SHOTS is very good and the only one I really felt he did with any passion and may be the loudest guitars I've ever heard before. I just listened to it to check and they are pretty amazing.
This is a below average album for Neil but like many of his other lesser albums it has a couple gems which makes it worth getting for hard core NY fans. If this album had come with a 12 pack it would have been a lot better.
Re-ac-tor RAORS! 
2009-04-25 - Looking back at Neil's RE-AC-TOR, one wonders how it is not a more highly regarded release in the hard rock genre. Pehapa it was just the timing, after all, in 1981 REO Speedwagon, Journey, Billy Squire, The Police and AC/DC were selling out arenas all over the world.
Reactor is a strong if misunderstood collection. When one remembers the advertised materials that were in Circus and Cream magazine at the time of release, there was a theme for the album. I clearly remember a hazardous materials placard that was split up into sections, each section was a different mode of transportation; one was a limo, one was a train, i cant remember the others, there might have been a surfer. When going over the song titles and themes, there is a direct reference to different modes of transportation. Southern Pacific and Rapid Transit address trains, Motorcity references cars, Getting back on it is about hitch hiking, Surfer Joe is obviously surfing. It is also ironic that Neil decided to call his next album TRANS, which also featured cars on the cover. I know that he loves cars, but is he also fasinated with transportation itself. The title is also a play on a nuclear reactor, and also the way one reacts, surely the cover is meant to resemble a nuclear placard.
T-Bone is a sarcastic jibe in only the way he can address it, just keep repeating that the economy stinks, without directly saying it.
Opera Star is also refered to as "Born To Rock" as he introduced it during his 1986 Rusted Out Garage tour.
Strangely, critics were quick to dismiss this album, only noting that SHOTS was the only good song on the record, as time passes, the album gets stronger. Perhaps they were waiting for another HARVEST or AFTER THE GOLD RUSH.
Check out my other reviews... Danny
An Often Overlooked Gem
2009-01-18 - This is the album that bridges the quiet country and blustery patriotism of "Hawks and Doves" and the electronica of "Trans" and is one of the 4 albums Neil released that David Geffen blamed for the downfall of his record company. Neil and his band rock hard and loud all the way through with lyrics that are still relevant over 20 years after its release. Although some of the songs aren't his strongest, "Southern Pacific" is a classic with its take on forced retirement, while "Motor City" deals with Detroit's woes and "T-Bone" says more about economic trouble with 2 lyric repeated over 8 minutes of guitar distorted fury. "Got mashed potatoes, Ain't got no T-Bone." That pretty much says it all.
Man, what a bad record 
2008-12-13 - Sometimes even Neil Young can pinch out a real cowflop. I'm a huge fan, but there are a few records I missed, and I'm going back and filling in the gaps. David Briggs produced this record, so I figured it had to be good. But the songs really suck, totally repetitive garbage. There's a reason why this album vanished beneath the waves. For completists only.
