World Record

Though he never really slowed down at any point, Neil Young stayed on an especially prolific streak as the 2010s bled into the 2020s. In addition to a steady rollout of archival material, official versions of long-bootlegged shows, and other miscellanea, Neil has produced albums of entirely new material at a rate unmatched by most artists in his age bracket who have been at it for as long as he has. World Record follows quickly behind the mellow rocking of 2021s Barn, and again finds Young ably backed by his longest-running comrades, Crazy Horse. This time around, however, the band worked with producer Rick Rubin, capturing everything live in the studio and sticking to an analog-heavy recording process. World Record is an album built of unlikely combinations that somehow work. Rubins muscular and often barnstorming production style lends itself unexpectedly well to the off-the-cuff recording method, pushing Youngs vocals to the front of the mixes but making lots of space for the songs to breathe. Instead of the ragged rocking Neil Young and Crazy Horse listeners might be expecting from pretty much any of their past eras, the performances here are often gentle and marked by expanded instrumentation. Squeezebox, pump organ, and accordion show up on multiple songs, leading "Walkin on the Road (To the Future)" and joining with tack piano and sweet vocal harmonies on "This Old Planet." Softly swaying album opener "Love Earth" is a classic Neil Young composition, with the kind of uncluttered structure and bittersweet melodies that gave some of his most memorable songs their impact. World Record rocks out a little bit, though, jamming through a stompy distorted blues on "The World (Is in Trouble Now)" and pairing an oddly pleasant mix of air organ chords and blasts of psychedelic guitar tones on "The Wonder Wont Wait." Then theres "Chevrolet," a 15-minute full-powered rager and one of the only songs on the album whose lyrics arent focused on environmental themes. Again, on a record primarily concerned about preserving the Earths fragile ecosystems, a mind-bending epic rocker about how cool a car is shouldnt make sense, but like many of the other weird combinations on World Record, it does. You can hear someone exclaim "That was fun!" off-mic as the song ends, and that spirit of fun and togetherness carries even the heaviest moments of the record, making it another valuable example of the unique magic Neil and Crazy Horse keep tapping into, even so many years on. ~ Fred Thomas

ギターが轟音で鳴る、いわゆるクレイジー・ホースらしい曲は全11曲中、スライド・ギターが唸る"Break The Chain"を含む3曲のみ。その他はオルガンやピアノの演奏をメインにしたフォーク、あるいはブルース調という穏やかな作品……と思わせ、ピリッとした緊張感はいかにも彼ららしく、その生々しさも聴きどころだろう。プロデューサーはリック・ルービン。"Chevrolet"の15分超えの演奏に圧倒される。
bounce (C)山口智男