Sleeps with Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
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971
Respectable and Recommendable, but Sort of Dull
Pros
Some terribly engaging songs in here.
Cons
Too many indistinguishable slowly paced songs for my taste.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I like Neil Young's Sleeps With Angels and it's among the best albums he's ever released. But I think it could have been better.
Disclaimer: Those looking for a brief description of the album will find what their looking for in the "Review Body" section. The section titled "Track Reviews" is meant only for those who want to read detailed descriptions of the songs, and they do not constitute the essence of this review. Lastly and most importantly, this review is probably not written by the point of view of a Neil Young fan.)
Overall Score: 4/5
Best song: “Safeway Cart”
Worst song: ...I don't know... everything here is completely respectable
Review Body:
Respect! That's what this Neil Young dude deserves for releasing this album. It's filled to the brim with mid-tempo ballads, sort of similar to Harvest Moon, but that Crazy Horse band came back, so you can expect it to be more electric guitar centered. Yup, remember that crazy distorted guitar that characterized his early '90s releases? You can hear a lot of that in this album. Fortunately, that guitar doesn't seem to completely steal the spotlight like it did so frequently on previous albums, so we can concentrate exclusively on Neil Young's songwriting!
But Neil Young has always been a fairly limited songwriter, and that's very evident in this release. He comes up with good melodies, but he also frequently comes up with boring and indistinguishable ones. I know that melodies aren't the only thing to songwriting, but great melodies only help matters! I really adore that rugged piano sound he came up with in the album opener, “My Heart” and the closer “A Dream that Can Last.” That piano sound was unusual and engaging enough for both of those songs to earn A-minuses in the track reviews. The melodies are OK, but they're not exactly anything I'll find myself humming under my breath after I'm finished with this review.
The best melody of this album probably occurs in “Change Your Mind.” If Young was going to put an engaging melody anywhere in this album, then it's a good thing he picked that one, because it's 14-minutes long! That running length is probably overkill, but it is engaging enough that I hardly notice the time pass. You see, that's the power of a good melody! As you would expect from 14-minute songs, it is filled to the brim with some more of Young's wonky guitar solos. I almost don't even think the wonky guitar style was very appropriate for a song like that, which seemed as though it would be better off as a jangle-pop thing. But it's impossible to deny that the guitar noodling is 100 percent cool!
I'm also a fan of “Prime of Life,” which gets a very good groove going. It also has a lot of interesting guitar tones and patterns throughout and it has a mightily good melody too. But my favorite thing about it is that ultra high-pitched recorder that whistles around occasionally! If Neil Young would come up with more cool ideas like that recorder, then I think more of his songs would be memorable. I mean, most of these songs are slowly-paced ballads, but I remember “Prime of Life” specifically because of that recorder.
That brings me to discussing this album's primary weakness: The saminess. Midway through the album, I start to get awfully tired of all these mid-tempo ballads coming on top of one another. ...They're all very nice ballads and they're great to listen to if you want a low-key though dark album to sit back and soak up, but it would have been nice if this album had a little more diversity in it. There is one quickly paced song in here, called “Piece of Crap,” and I always seem to get incredibly excited whenever it pops up! Not to say that these slowly paced songs are terrible or anything. Songs like “Western Hero” and “Blue Eden” make excellent listens. There's absolutely nothing cheapish about them. As I said earlier, they're 100 percent respectable.
Though some of these ballads are clearly better than others. “Safeway Cart” is one of the most brilliant and engaging things the man has ever written. It's intimate atmosphere immediately draws me in! I also approve of his use of his ultra-distorted guitar in that one... Instead of noodling around constantly like he has done many times before, the guitar only comes in occasionally. It's more effective that way, methinks. One of the more notable songs on the album is the title track, which hints at Kurt Cobain and his suicide. Certainly, that was a matter that disturbed Young greatly. (I mean, if Kurt Cobain quoted something I had written in his suicide note, I would have gotten terribly depressed to say the least.) That's a pretty scary song, too, with its strange electric guitar tone.
I gotta say, this is a very, very strong 4. I very nearly gave it a 4.5, but that was only because it seems like it should have a higher rating than Ragged Glory. But this really is quite a bit weaker than Harvest Moon in my book, so I'll keep it at an 4. I think if Neil Young would have diversified this album up a bit, it would have been better for all of us! ... It's a very good album, though, and I heartily recommend it to casual fans.
Track Reviews:
My Heart A-
I've always suspected that Neil Young was somewhat limited as a songwriter. The only reason I like this song is for that really cool piano sound that he came up with. I don't know how he did it, but it's awesome! The melody itself is OK, but it's hardly “hooky” or anything. I suppose you could like this song for the lyrics if you want to be weird like that...
Prime of Life A
Do you know the main reason I like this song? It's for that demented recorder sound that noodles around throughout. I also think that chugging groove is pretty cool. The Crazy Horse guitarists bring in some quirky, ultra-distorted guitar tones, but they're more playful and not the stupidly “distorted to be distorted” variety of their previous albums with Neil. Again, this interesting instrumentation really trumps the melody... but the melody is pretty good as far as his melodies go!
Driveby A-
Man, that piano tone is absolutely the coolest... This is very slow moving, typical Neil Young ballad. The melody ain't that captivating, but it's alright. I just like listening to that organic piano tinkling around very pleasantly in those mid-ranges. A crazy-distorted guitar and a fairly normal regular acoustic guitar comes in at times and brings us an interesting solo. This is really nothing more than a great song to sit back and chill out to... And man is it ever good for that!
Sleeps With Angels B+
This is interesting. You can hear a lot of that ultra-distorted guitar at the beginning of this, but it's playing a riff, which is better than that just being aimless with it. It's not greatly enjoyable, though. I think that guitar is perhaps a bit much, and I find this pretty difficult to like. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is the lyrics, which are reportedly centered around Kurt Cobain's suicide... as you probably knew long before I did, Cobain quoted Neil Young in his suicide note...
Western Hero B
Not an altogether bad ballad, but it needed something extra to pop out at me, I think. The melody is OK, but not great, and there's more of that crazy-distorted guitar in the background. Although, this time, the guitar seems more like it's here just to clutter things up instead of serving any great purpose... I suppose this continues to be a pretty nice song to sit back and soak up, though I'm getting bored with it to be frank.
Change Your Mind A
Surely one of the better melodies on the album. This actually has a chorus, so it seems like a bit of a novelty for Neil Young in this album, I guess! I mean, his songs that have choruses almost sound like pop rock! I think he probably could have made more interesting arrangements... this screams for some more polished and REM-ish instead of merely using that wonky guitar of his to litter things. Though the guitar is undoubtedly cool to listen to, but it's not all that constructive to the song. It's also worth noting that this song goes on for fourteen minutes. That was probably overkill, but to its credit, I almost don't even notice the time running out like that. ...So, as far as his extremely long songs have been going in the '90s, this is surely one of his better ones.
Blue Eden B+
I'm getting a little bit tired of all these songs having the same mid-tempo pace. His electric guitar is really cool, of course, but I really start to get the impression that he's doing it, because he doesn't know what else to do. Other than that, this is a mightily respectable song, and the guitaring is very cool despite my complaints about it.
Safeway Cart A
Why, I went to Safeway just the other day, so I guess this song is about me! ...Or, maybe it's just another cool Neil Young song! Man, he's still doing that mid-tempo pace, which seems to get drearier and drearier the more that I listen to it. But I can't deny that this song is pretty dang cool anyway. The atmosphere is more engaging here than usual, and that groove is nice and crunchy. Young's ultra-distorted guitar noodles only appear minimally, which is a generally more favorable proposition than that thing noodling around constantly like it does on some of these other songs. So, nice joerb!
Train of Love B+
Mannnnn... I wish I could lie to you and claim that this isn't another slowly paced ballad. But nope. This is another slowly paced ballad. I like it and it's 100 percent respectable, but ... grrrrr! I wants variety!! Again, it's really nice to sit back and soak up, and the melody is rather sweet. Nothing particularly notable with the instrumentation other than it's tasteful. I sort of liked those weird, quirky things they were doing at the beginning of this album. Couldn't they have come up with more stuff like that?
Trans Am B
Guess what? This is another slow song! This deflated “B” rating has nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting tired of slow ballads... I just don't think this song has enough of an engaging atmosphere for me to score it anything higher. I sort of like Neil Young's almost spoken-word, cowpoke delivery. I also like hearing that rubbery guitar noodle around. It's played very nicely, and again it's a good song to sit back and soak up. But ... eh, I'm bored.
Piece of Crap A-
Hey, that's one of my favorite phrases! Oh no, I think this album is about me!! (I genuinely believe that most rock musicians have me in mind when they write songs... even if they were recorded long before I was born...) Another reason why I think Neil Young wrote this about me is because he finally granted my #1 wish and actually brought in something with a little bit of RHYTHM! Yes sir, this is a fast-paced song! It's not a *great* song, mind you; it's pretty sloppy and I don't find the riff or melody to be particularly enchanting. But those really gruffy howls of “Piece of crap!!!” throughout this song are funny. Plus, the distorted guitar noodling is pretty cool!
A Dream That Can Last A-
Yayyyyyy!! Neil Young brought back that funny piano tone that we first heard in “My Heart.” That's really cool, because I like that sound!! Once again, I don't find anything particularly great about the melody; it's the piano that makes it for me. Also, that really, really loud “death-march” drum was a really cool touch.
Concluding Remarks:
Neil Young's Sleeps With Angels is a completely respectable release, but I admit I do get tired of all these slow paced songs!
Read more Neil Young reviews by Starcollector!
Neil Young (1969) | Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969) | After the Gold Rush (1970) | Harvest (1972) | On the Beach (1974) | Tonight's the Night (1975) | Zuma (1975) | American Stars 'N Bars (1977) | Comes a Time (1978) | Rust Never Sleeps (1979) | Live Rust (1979) | Hawks & Doves (1980) | Re-ac-tor (1981) | Trans (1982) | Everybody's Rockin' (1983) | Old Ways (1985) | Landing On Water (1986) | Life (1987) | This Note's For You (1988) | Freedom (1989) | Ragged Glory (1990) | Weld (1991) | Arc (1991) | Harvest Moon (1992) | Unplugged (1993) | Sleeps With Angels (1994) | Mirror Ball (1995) | Dead Man (1996) | Broken Arrow (1996) | Year of the Horse (1997) | Silver & Gold (2000) | Rock Road Vol. 1 (2000) | Are You Passionate? (2002) | Greendale (2003) | Prairie Wind (2005) | Living With War (2006) | Chrome Dreams II (2007) | Fork in the Road (2009) | Le Noise (2010)
Overall Score: 4/5
Best song: “Safeway Cart”
Worst song: ...I don't know... everything here is completely respectable
Review Body:
Respect! That's what this Neil Young dude deserves for releasing this album. It's filled to the brim with mid-tempo ballads, sort of similar to Harvest Moon, but that Crazy Horse band came back, so you can expect it to be more electric guitar centered. Yup, remember that crazy distorted guitar that characterized his early '90s releases? You can hear a lot of that in this album. Fortunately, that guitar doesn't seem to completely steal the spotlight like it did so frequently on previous albums, so we can concentrate exclusively on Neil Young's songwriting!
But Neil Young has always been a fairly limited songwriter, and that's very evident in this release. He comes up with good melodies, but he also frequently comes up with boring and indistinguishable ones. I know that melodies aren't the only thing to songwriting, but great melodies only help matters! I really adore that rugged piano sound he came up with in the album opener, “My Heart” and the closer “A Dream that Can Last.” That piano sound was unusual and engaging enough for both of those songs to earn A-minuses in the track reviews. The melodies are OK, but they're not exactly anything I'll find myself humming under my breath after I'm finished with this review.
The best melody of this album probably occurs in “Change Your Mind.” If Young was going to put an engaging melody anywhere in this album, then it's a good thing he picked that one, because it's 14-minutes long! That running length is probably overkill, but it is engaging enough that I hardly notice the time pass. You see, that's the power of a good melody! As you would expect from 14-minute songs, it is filled to the brim with some more of Young's wonky guitar solos. I almost don't even think the wonky guitar style was very appropriate for a song like that, which seemed as though it would be better off as a jangle-pop thing. But it's impossible to deny that the guitar noodling is 100 percent cool!
I'm also a fan of “Prime of Life,” which gets a very good groove going. It also has a lot of interesting guitar tones and patterns throughout and it has a mightily good melody too. But my favorite thing about it is that ultra high-pitched recorder that whistles around occasionally! If Neil Young would come up with more cool ideas like that recorder, then I think more of his songs would be memorable. I mean, most of these songs are slowly-paced ballads, but I remember “Prime of Life” specifically because of that recorder.
That brings me to discussing this album's primary weakness: The saminess. Midway through the album, I start to get awfully tired of all these mid-tempo ballads coming on top of one another. ...They're all very nice ballads and they're great to listen to if you want a low-key though dark album to sit back and soak up, but it would have been nice if this album had a little more diversity in it. There is one quickly paced song in here, called “Piece of Crap,” and I always seem to get incredibly excited whenever it pops up! Not to say that these slowly paced songs are terrible or anything. Songs like “Western Hero” and “Blue Eden” make excellent listens. There's absolutely nothing cheapish about them. As I said earlier, they're 100 percent respectable.
Though some of these ballads are clearly better than others. “Safeway Cart” is one of the most brilliant and engaging things the man has ever written. It's intimate atmosphere immediately draws me in! I also approve of his use of his ultra-distorted guitar in that one... Instead of noodling around constantly like he has done many times before, the guitar only comes in occasionally. It's more effective that way, methinks. One of the more notable songs on the album is the title track, which hints at Kurt Cobain and his suicide. Certainly, that was a matter that disturbed Young greatly. (I mean, if Kurt Cobain quoted something I had written in his suicide note, I would have gotten terribly depressed to say the least.) That's a pretty scary song, too, with its strange electric guitar tone.
I gotta say, this is a very, very strong 4. I very nearly gave it a 4.5, but that was only because it seems like it should have a higher rating than Ragged Glory. But this really is quite a bit weaker than Harvest Moon in my book, so I'll keep it at an 4. I think if Neil Young would have diversified this album up a bit, it would have been better for all of us! ... It's a very good album, though, and I heartily recommend it to casual fans.
Track Reviews:
My Heart A-
I've always suspected that Neil Young was somewhat limited as a songwriter. The only reason I like this song is for that really cool piano sound that he came up with. I don't know how he did it, but it's awesome! The melody itself is OK, but it's hardly “hooky” or anything. I suppose you could like this song for the lyrics if you want to be weird like that...
Prime of Life A
Do you know the main reason I like this song? It's for that demented recorder sound that noodles around throughout. I also think that chugging groove is pretty cool. The Crazy Horse guitarists bring in some quirky, ultra-distorted guitar tones, but they're more playful and not the stupidly “distorted to be distorted” variety of their previous albums with Neil. Again, this interesting instrumentation really trumps the melody... but the melody is pretty good as far as his melodies go!
Driveby A-
Man, that piano tone is absolutely the coolest... This is very slow moving, typical Neil Young ballad. The melody ain't that captivating, but it's alright. I just like listening to that organic piano tinkling around very pleasantly in those mid-ranges. A crazy-distorted guitar and a fairly normal regular acoustic guitar comes in at times and brings us an interesting solo. This is really nothing more than a great song to sit back and chill out to... And man is it ever good for that!
Sleeps With Angels B+
This is interesting. You can hear a lot of that ultra-distorted guitar at the beginning of this, but it's playing a riff, which is better than that just being aimless with it. It's not greatly enjoyable, though. I think that guitar is perhaps a bit much, and I find this pretty difficult to like. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is the lyrics, which are reportedly centered around Kurt Cobain's suicide... as you probably knew long before I did, Cobain quoted Neil Young in his suicide note...
Western Hero B
Not an altogether bad ballad, but it needed something extra to pop out at me, I think. The melody is OK, but not great, and there's more of that crazy-distorted guitar in the background. Although, this time, the guitar seems more like it's here just to clutter things up instead of serving any great purpose... I suppose this continues to be a pretty nice song to sit back and soak up, though I'm getting bored with it to be frank.
Change Your Mind A
Surely one of the better melodies on the album. This actually has a chorus, so it seems like a bit of a novelty for Neil Young in this album, I guess! I mean, his songs that have choruses almost sound like pop rock! I think he probably could have made more interesting arrangements... this screams for some more polished and REM-ish instead of merely using that wonky guitar of his to litter things. Though the guitar is undoubtedly cool to listen to, but it's not all that constructive to the song. It's also worth noting that this song goes on for fourteen minutes. That was probably overkill, but to its credit, I almost don't even notice the time running out like that. ...So, as far as his extremely long songs have been going in the '90s, this is surely one of his better ones.
Blue Eden B+
I'm getting a little bit tired of all these songs having the same mid-tempo pace. His electric guitar is really cool, of course, but I really start to get the impression that he's doing it, because he doesn't know what else to do. Other than that, this is a mightily respectable song, and the guitaring is very cool despite my complaints about it.
Safeway Cart A
Why, I went to Safeway just the other day, so I guess this song is about me! ...Or, maybe it's just another cool Neil Young song! Man, he's still doing that mid-tempo pace, which seems to get drearier and drearier the more that I listen to it. But I can't deny that this song is pretty dang cool anyway. The atmosphere is more engaging here than usual, and that groove is nice and crunchy. Young's ultra-distorted guitar noodles only appear minimally, which is a generally more favorable proposition than that thing noodling around constantly like it does on some of these other songs. So, nice joerb!
Train of Love B+
Mannnnn... I wish I could lie to you and claim that this isn't another slowly paced ballad. But nope. This is another slowly paced ballad. I like it and it's 100 percent respectable, but ... grrrrr! I wants variety!! Again, it's really nice to sit back and soak up, and the melody is rather sweet. Nothing particularly notable with the instrumentation other than it's tasteful. I sort of liked those weird, quirky things they were doing at the beginning of this album. Couldn't they have come up with more stuff like that?
Trans Am B
Guess what? This is another slow song! This deflated “B” rating has nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting tired of slow ballads... I just don't think this song has enough of an engaging atmosphere for me to score it anything higher. I sort of like Neil Young's almost spoken-word, cowpoke delivery. I also like hearing that rubbery guitar noodle around. It's played very nicely, and again it's a good song to sit back and soak up. But ... eh, I'm bored.
Piece of Crap A-
Hey, that's one of my favorite phrases! Oh no, I think this album is about me!! (I genuinely believe that most rock musicians have me in mind when they write songs... even if they were recorded long before I was born...) Another reason why I think Neil Young wrote this about me is because he finally granted my #1 wish and actually brought in something with a little bit of RHYTHM! Yes sir, this is a fast-paced song! It's not a *great* song, mind you; it's pretty sloppy and I don't find the riff or melody to be particularly enchanting. But those really gruffy howls of “Piece of crap!!!” throughout this song are funny. Plus, the distorted guitar noodling is pretty cool!
A Dream That Can Last A-
Yayyyyyy!! Neil Young brought back that funny piano tone that we first heard in “My Heart.” That's really cool, because I like that sound!! Once again, I don't find anything particularly great about the melody; it's the piano that makes it for me. Also, that really, really loud “death-march” drum was a really cool touch.
Concluding Remarks:
Neil Young's Sleeps With Angels is a completely respectable release, but I admit I do get tired of all these slow paced songs!
Read more Neil Young reviews by Starcollector!
Neil Young (1969) | Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969) | After the Gold Rush (1970) | Harvest (1972) | On the Beach (1974) | Tonight's the Night (1975) | Zuma (1975) | American Stars 'N Bars (1977) | Comes a Time (1978) | Rust Never Sleeps (1979) | Live Rust (1979) | Hawks & Doves (1980) | Re-ac-tor (1981) | Trans (1982) | Everybody's Rockin' (1983) | Old Ways (1985) | Landing On Water (1986) | Life (1987) | This Note's For You (1988) | Freedom (1989) | Ragged Glory (1990) | Weld (1991) | Arc (1991) | Harvest Moon (1992) | Unplugged (1993) | Sleeps With Angels (1994) | Mirror Ball (1995) | Dead Man (1996) | Broken Arrow (1996) | Year of the Horse (1997) | Silver & Gold (2000) | Rock Road Vol. 1 (2000) | Are You Passionate? (2002) | Greendale (2003) | Prairie Wind (2005) | Living With War (2006) | Chrome Dreams II (2007) | Fork in the Road (2009) | Le Noise (2010)
