Revisiting the songs of his past and possibly his finest moments, Neil Young takes to Before and After with a more literal mood found in his title. These are the firm favourites of his discography, returned to after decades of their impact moving through cultural circles. There is always a chance for reinvention – just so few are doing it right. Dolly Parton and U2 are trying it out this year and failing miserably. Leave it to Young, then, to set it all right. A tease of what was to come through the Pt. 1 EP set the scene nicely – songs Young believes will work well together in a place of reflective urgency. That comes to pass here, more for On the Way Home, the tender reflections of a long-serving country musician’s voice are heard at their very best with instrumentals to back it up.
What Young does accomplish on this is obvious. His clear and crisp voice, heightened with age and in the twilight years of his career, is a blueprint for songs old and new. He demonstrates an understanding of the risks associated with covering your own works years down the line, something other contemporaries flagrantly avoided earlier this year. Before and After is stuffed full of regret, acceptance and thoughtful repositionings of some of the very best of Young’s work. These are accounts of his expertise and a sincere, powerful display of articulated desires. No need to dip into the youth, Young has accepted the chances of his latest records being his last – and Before and After gives him the chance to demonstrate his abilities when it comes to adapting his finest works.
Grinding through the keyboard presentation of If You Got Love, Young is keen to isolate his voice alongside a key instrument. This is the core to Before and After, a necessary strip back of his songs. His voice has aged with real class and new levels to his range. He hits the highs still, a truly beautiful procession backed by spotty harmonica and keyboard work. Though the opening to A Dream That Can Last sounds more like a Samsung phone ringtone preset, the follow-up Birds is a tender direction Young was so clearly aiming for when he first set out to re-record his favourites. Both are still a paramount lyrical experience – just the instrumentals around them strike as simple and plain, something which these tracks in their original state are not.
Mother Earth stands out most of all. It lingers there with its cutting harmonica and the orchestra backing it. A strange pairing for the instrumentals but, hell, it works. Young has always been a risk-taker and his music is proudly showing this constantly. It is not his best release of the year – though the long sought-after Chrome Dreams was always going to delight. “How long can you give and not receive?” Young asks. It feels more like a question for himself and his output – consistent so it has been the last few decades. What does he get in return, beyond the obvious financial and critical acclaim? Before and After presents a man in the same spot Johnny Cash found himself in on American Recordings – the chance to make amends with himself and hold firm with the implication he never lost the gift. Young does a supreme job in proving he still has a tune in him, and he does so by taking the challenging works of old and slipping them into the relevancy of here and now.
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