March 19, 1998
Neil Young's third album is his first masterpiece. Young has become an American institution, an endlessly fascinating, restless creative genius, and After the Gold Rush has the seeds of all his future peaks.
Young's obsession with Western Americana manifests itself in the gentle folk of "Cripple Creek Ferry" and the halting piano of "Till the Morning Comes". There's also the furious indictment of racism in "Southern Man" - this legendary performance illustrates Young's visceral, taut electric guitar and fevered passion. It's also the only song of its kind on the album.
After the Gold Rush is mainly a pensive, acoustic affair, but it is played with absolute conviction in the service of one of Young's strongest collection of songs. Young is concerned here with the core of humanity - hope, despair, and how to make love stay. His voice has the high, careless clarity of a child, but his lyrics are those of a weathered, wise traveller.
"Don't Let it Bring You Down" is a darkly poetic look at human degradation, and "I Believe in You" perfectly captures a strained relationship with these lines: "Now that you've made yourself love me, do you think I could change it in a day? Finding out that what you once thought was real is gone, and changing?" Sung with pained melancholy, the melody will break your heart.
The centerpiece is the title track. Just Young accompanying himself on piano, the hallucinatory imagery and achingly gorgeous melody is a tour-de-force of tender simplicity. Young sounds like a man beat down but unbroken, who has seen the depths of human horrors but still finds means to hope. And honestly, that's what his entire body of work is all about.
- Jared O'Connor
his first masterpiece