Hailed as the high point not just for Neil Young as an artist but for his career. A hell of a bar to be set by the third album in his career, and in total, incorrect. After the Gold Rush is a marvellous and at times emotionally broken and weeping piece of music. Take hold of this inspired piece of work but know Harvest and the official release of Chrome Dreams are available. Still, why mock one of the greats? Young has a hell of a voice and has maintained it in a staggering, wonderful fashion. Here it is in a primal moment of cultural reinvention for a period of decay in the United States, one of many it must be said. These are the folk and country blurs which made the most of rock in the 1970s – and it marks a popular tingle for the back of the brain.
Take a perfect piece like Only Love Can Break Your Heart or the titular mood of After the Gold Rush, a melancholic but assured piece. Foot-tapping instrumental spectacle Southern Man may be one of the finest guitar pieces put to tape – no over-exaggeration there – just a hell of a swing and placement, with groove, style and tones to match with the fear of forgetting the Good Book and being blindsided by the shifting times. Young has his hands firmly on the culture of the times and it proves as a catalyst for the future, a real way of looking back and feeling in touch and connected with the past. There would be further grip on the world around Young had he kept it whirring over onto the B-Side.
No trouble with the quality at all just a dip in what was expected from Young in this period. Don’t Let It Bring You Down has the rumblings of a mellow and blue story; the cold rippling winds and the flood of grey skies rush through. Young depends on the visualisation of his music. Always has, and always will. Birds comes and goes but gives way to the charming doubts and rediscoveries of the soul on I Believe in You, a self-harmonizing stroke of brilliance. Album closer Cripple Creek Ferry suffers from the same malaise too – the latter tracks feeling more like afterthoughts of soulful quality and grand perspective but afterthoughts, nonetheless. It is a shame to feel this way for an album which sparks real glory in its opening moments but that is the cut-and-shut nature of After the Gold Rush.
Still a charming and powerful collection of songs though Young would find striking brilliance after this. After the Gold Rush feels like a grand pocket of the times and for Young it would and still does serve as a fine companion piece to learning of the era and period. His lyrical thrills are hard to miss, the sharp and jagged edges of his delivery are a tremendous mark of quality. Brief and passive moments aside, Young strikes a chord with the nation of the time and manages to write in such a way where all good country and folk should find itself, a timelessness to the message, an objective in the writing. Such is the case for this fine piece of work.
