Neil Young Albums ReviewsIn 2004 Rustie, Mike "Expecting 2 Fly" Cordova posted a series of articles on his experience listening to all of Neil Young's albums in chronological order. Here is one in the series. For a complete listing, see Albums in Order reviews.
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:51:36 -0800 (PST) I remember the summer of 1986 very well. I was still in
the Air Force, but had decided to become a commercial
airline pilot. Part of the transition involved obtaining
some aviation credentials added to my pilot license. I was
living in central California and was staying at some
friends' house in S. Cal while taking some of that extra
training to beef up my resume when Landing On Water came
out.
I didn't know much about the album before it came out. I
might have heard that it was synthesizer-laden, which
sounded kind of weird to me as last I heard Neil was going
to play country the rest of his career, but who knows with
Neil? Anyway, I thought it was kind of a hoot that Neil
had chosen a picture from a airline safety card for the
cover. The title I thought was pretty strange -- not a
song title or even part of a song. I did listen to an
interview a few weeks after the record came out in which
Neil explained that he came up with the title while
listening to the safety briefing before a flight looking
at the safety card, figuring those folks climbing out of
the aircraft after ditching in the water thinking: "those
people don't have a chance..." He said he was a bit
worried how his fans might accept the music on this album.
Well, I took Landing On Water to my friends' place while
they were still at work which was good for me so I could
listen to it loudly by myself. I put needle to vinyl and
listened and as the opening notes to Weight Of The World
started playing I thought: "holy shit, they put the wrong
lp in this Neil Young album sleeve; this cannot be Neil
Young!" But as the song kept playing I of course
recognized that this was Neil's latest zag after the
previous zig as well his distinctive voice. And I kept on
listening to the album, then with much interest played it
again and again. Despite the fact that I missed very much
Neil's hick persona he had adopted for the last couple of
years, I really liked this new facet he had created in his
catalog. Good songs, good singing. I thought the
production was a bit shoddy. The drum parts, while
performed expertly by Steve Jordan [this is the drummer
for the Saturday Night Live "Rockin' In The Free World" performance in 1989], were mixed in way
that made it sound cheapo. The songs were pretty good
though.
Violent Side was an immediate fave for me. I love Neil's
vocal on this one when he sings "I got to fight to control
it." Kind of indicated a feeling of demon struggles inside
us all. This song and Touch The Night (which actually got
some radio play) featured the San Francisco Boys Choir.
Hippie Dream felt like David Crosby all the way. Hard Luck
Stories, I Got A Problem, and Pressure are a great trio of
songs. I liked this album quite a bit, I must say. I
played it over and over until it was imprinted on my brain
just like all the other albums and I still get a kick out
of it now.
I very much enjoyed listening to Landing On Water today.
Mike - Expecting To Fly
From: Mike Cordova
To: rust@rustlist.org
Subject: Albums in order: Landing On Water
For more of Expecting To Fly's reviews, see the Albums in Order series.
Neil Young Archives - Thrasher's Wheat