Neil Young - Zuma

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Easily the moodiest album in a career not lacking in that quality, "Zuma" is a swirling, hypnotic current that drags you into river of self-doubt, bitterness and fear. This is the sound of the '60 gone sour. All the peace-and-love vibes Young dabbled in with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY crash to the ground, and the strange, beautiful sound they make is "Zuma".
It's only through the good offices of Crazy Horse that Young is able to keep the somber, droning quality of these tunes going for an entire album without a moment of boredom. On the unforgivingly sarcastic "Stupid Girl" and the paranoid "Cortez the Killer," it's the languid air of acceptance with which Young delivers the lyrics that draws you in, but it's the twisting thorn bush of electric guitars that keeps you focused. Hidden amidst all this emotional turmoil is one of Young's most poignant, trenchant and concise pop gems, "Don't Cry No Tears."

Having apparently exorcised his demons by releasing the cathartic Tonight's the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial strengths with Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he now owned a house). Seven of the album's nine songs were recorded with the reunited Crazy Horse, in which rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro had replaced the late Danny Whitten, but there were also nods to other popular Young styles in "Pardon My Heart," an acoustic song that would have fit on Harvest, his most popular album, and "Through My Sails," retrieved from one of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's abortive recording sessions. Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity. The overall theme concerned romantic conflict, with lyrics that lamented lost love and sometimes longed for a return ("Pardon My Heart" even found Young singing, "I don't believe this song"), though the overall conclusion, notably in such catchy songs as "Don't Cry No Tears" and "Lookin' for a Love," was to move on to the next relationship. But the album's standout track (apparently the only holdover from an early intention to present songs with historical subjects) was the seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Cortez the Killer," a commentary on the Spanish conqueror of Latin America that served as a platform for Young's most extensive guitar soloing since his work on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. [AMG]

Neil Young - vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano, vibraphone
Danny Whitten - vocals, guitar
Ralph Molina - vocals, drums
Billy Talbot - bass.
Additional personnel:
Nils Lofgren - vocals, guitar, piano
Ben Keith - vocals, pedal steel guitar, slide guitar
Jack Nitzsche - piano
Tim Drummond - bass
Kenny Buttrey - drums

1. Don't Cry No Tears
2. Danger Bird
3. Pardon My Heart
4. Lookin' For a Love
5. Barstool Blues
6. Stupid Girl
7. Drive Back
8. Cortez the Killer
9. Through My Sails


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