On The Beach - NEIL YOUNG***

Walk On/See The Sky About To Rain/Revolution Blues/For The Turnstiles/Vampire Blues/On The Beach/Motion Pictures/Ambulance Blues

After several excellent albums the release of On The Beach must have come as a disappointment to Neil Young fans. Darker and bleaker than previously, overall most of these songs are mediocre. (US:16 UK:42)

“On here, Young was still coping with the loss of two of his friends to their various addictions, as well as the sudden fame that had been bestowed upon him. The strident, bouncy and riffy opening of Walk On aside, the bulk of On The Beach is about his frequently blues-soaked musings on fame and empty relationships.”

“Stark, desolate, burning with a lovely inner luminosity, dangerous, jaded. All of these could perfectly describe On The Beach. The album's shockingly cynical and hostile centrepiece, Revolution Blues, with it's songs about hippies in dune buggies sallying forth to butcher movie stars was nothing less than incendiary in California in the wake of the Manson atrocities. But then you have Walk On, which is as wonderful as a breeze on a summer's day. Then Neil darkens the tone again with the dark and lonesome For The Turnstiles.”

“This is a really good album, finding Neil in acoustic mode and most of the songs are very laid back musically, but downbeat lyrically.”

“It has such a dark yet melodic tone throughout, and as always the blues undertones which I love from Neil. The best thing here are his lyrics though.”

“Something of a disappointment, in that I was led to believe that this is one his more consistently good albums. For The Turnstiles, Ambulance Blues, and Motion Pictures are up there with his best songs, but the rest are just OK.”

“With On The Beach, Neil Young sent a signal to the millions of fans he accumulated with classic recordings that he was no longer interested in them, he was going to follow his own path. He didn't change his music all that much; at this point, it was still acoustic and electric guitars, country-western touches and the same vocal style. But the subject matter and outlook became much bleaker, and the rhythms and tunes far less engaging than the country-rock beats and sing-along melodies of his earlier work.”