Chrome Dreams

Product Information

this release is absolutely overpriced - and still, i bought four copies of this record just with the hope to land on one to keep. the price would be justified if this was a heavy tip-on gatefold sleeve that included two 180gram vinyls. the LPs are super thin, the sleeve is really nice and it's all good, but not for this price. i mean this is being sold for around 68 USD in local stores, which is not acceptable. Sixteen years ago, in 2007, Neil Young puzzled quite a few people when he released a new album called Chrome Dreams II. Only his most devoted followers knew that the title was a reference to Chrome Dreams, an entirely different album he had put together in 1977 before shelving it in favor of American Stars ‘n Bars. The original Chrome Dreams leaked out years later as a bootleg drawn from the ’77 acetate, and many fans felt he had made the wrong choice. “In many ways,” Young biographer Jimmy McDonough wrote in his 2002 Young biography, Shakey, “ Chrome Dreams is a more powerful collection than the haphazard collection of American Stars ‘n Bars.” All these releases come amid Young’s ongoing series of archival reissues. In April last year, he released the ‘Official Release Series Volume 4’ box set, comprising three classic albums from the 1980s – one of his own, and two collaborative efforts – as well as a rare EP that was only ever sold in Australia and Japan. Collette, Doug (August 9, 2023). "Neil Young's Chrome Dreams Offers Mid-'70s Gems As Originally Intended (Album Review)". Glide Magazine . Retrieved August 11, 2023. According to Young, ‘Toast’ is “an album that stands on its own in [his] collection”. He cited the record’s melancholic tone as a reason why it never left the studio, explaining in last May’s aforementioned blog post: “Unlike any other, ‘Toast’ was so sad that I couldn’t put it out. I just skipped it and went on to do another album in its place. I couldn’t handle it at that time. 2001.”

Neil Young’s deep dive into his archives will continue this August with the arrival of what’s considered one of the most mythic and desired items in his vault, his unreleased 1977 album Chrome Dreams. Pitchfork named the album "Best New Reissue", with Stephen Thomas Erlewine stating that "as familiar as the material may be, its ragged, magical charm is greater than the sum of its parts" and it "offers a distinctly different experience than any other Young album from the late 1970s". [11] Fred Thomas of AllMusic felt that "Young devotees are probably already aware of the legacy and niche cultural importance of Chrome Dreams and will appreciate the specifics of the listening experience, even if the songs have become less obscured since they were first put to tape". [8] Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis opined that the album "could have been Young's strongest album of the 70s". [4] Austriancharts.at – Neil Young – Chrome Dreams" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 29, 2023. It’s fair to say that Neil Young has ‘lost’ more albums than most and next month another legendary long-player that was ‘mislaid’ in the 1970s is given a full commercial release.

Both pale next to Ordinary People, which went unreleased for two decades. You have to be either supremely confident or hugely misguided to believe that any song warrants taking up 18 minutes of your listeners' lives, but nothing here feels superfluous or wasted: it races by in an exhilarating blur of gripping, witty lyrical vignettes - barflies watching a Las Vegas title fight, homeless squatters occupying the derelict factory in which they used to work, a hustler "tryin' to help the people get the drugs to the street" - blasting brass arrangements and guitar solos that sound like anger boiling over. Perversely, Ordinary People is so extraordinary that you wonder at the wisdom of its inclusion here. It's fit to stand alongside anything Young has ever recorded, but it's also 20 years old, which casts the recent material that follows in an unforgiving light. Dutchcharts.nl – Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 29, 2022. Offiziellecharts.de – Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved October 29, 2022. Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II. and Live Archives coming up – Ordinary People". Bad News Beat . Retrieved 2007-11-28. The album in question is Chrome Dreams a non-release dating from 1977 that was confusingly ‘followed up’ in 2007 by Chrome Dreams II.

Kreps, Daniel (June 30, 2023). "Neil Young Is Finally Releasing His Long-Lost Album Chrome Dreams". Rolling Stone . Retrieved August 11, 2023.Tim Adams. "CD: Neil Young, Chrome Dreams II/Bruce Springsteen, Magic | Music | The Guardian". Music.guardian.co.uk . Retrieved 2015-06-03. Christgau, Robert (2007-11-01). "Neil Young Chrome Dreams II Album Review". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 2015-06-03. Neil Young – guitar, vocal; Frank “Poncho” Sampedro – Stringman, vocals; Billy Talbot – bass; Ralph Molina – drums, vocal so after going through 4 copies of 2 different pressings, i'm finally happy to have landed on a 'quite' flat, very clean EU pressing. actually all of the copies i got very exceptionally clean. but as written before, all of them were warped. it was a warp disaster that i haven't experienced before. and that is a shame, especially after waiting for this release for such a long time. so this really is a missed opportunity, because the standard for NY vinyl pressings used to be impeccable. things went downhill for quite some time now. this is my favourite neil young record, and i've waited for an official release of this for a long time now. my feelings are mixed. so here is a short rundown of my 2023 chrome dreams experience.