After a period of bizarre experiments in the 1980s, Neil Young had a veritable renaissance in the 1990s. He found himself on the very cutting edge of the grunge explosion, and became the honorary guru of the alternative rock era. He achieved this, largely, by getting back to his roots and courting the styles he had become famous for in the 70s: lucid hard rock albums like Ragged Glory (1990), and sentimental folk such as Harvest Moon (1992). For his next disc, Neil attempted to channel a different style: the grim mentality of his "ditch trilogy," which ruminated on the heroin overdose of original Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten in 1970. With the untimely death of Kurt Cobain halfway through the creation of Sleeps With Angels, the project became imbued with unfortunate new resonance.
There has never been a more archetypal late-night record made, than Neil Young & Crazy Horse's 1994 album: the dark, ponderous Sleeps With Angels. It's the epitome of cool, the very essence of a midnight drive or a glass of wine on the porch at 4am. A full moon beach seance. A huddled mass of close friends waxing philosophic as dawn breaks. It's such a relentlessly shadowy album that it actually seems pretty ridiculous to listen to it during the day -- unless, of course, you're obsessively lost in yearning for those late nights long past.
The Crazy Horse format of rancorous guitars is subdued here into an almost neo-jazz sloppy precision. Vocals are given strictly in hushed tones and ominous background chants. The guitars become fuzz-ridden laments, as if slowly disseminating from a small amp in the far corner of an after-hours dive bar while the architect of said sound, a man in a trenchcoat and a top hot, is bent over his instrument with his face obscured, coming down off some long-stale high -- and he's the only person in the bar but you. It's an album seeping with shards of reality, but still firmly ensconced in the dewey gleam of preternatural warmth. Like an LSD hangover.
Like Neil's other 90s records, the lyrics present the worldview of a contented, happily wisened middle-aged man. But Sleeps With Angels is additionally haunted by the spectres of those who could not be saved. Neil's seen his share of destruction in his time, and on this record his ascension to maturity is made bittersweet by what could have been, had his fallen friends been able to achieve the same peace of mind.
It's not a wholly flawless record. There's some major filler. And a small studio performance called The Complex Sessions which Neil and the Horse did shortly after releasing the album, captures all the same hushed aesthetics while actually improving upon some of the initial arrangements.
But where it autonomously excels, is in sheer atmosphere. There's a lot of atmospheric music out there, and a lot of music that invokes the feeling of nighttime adventure. But there's no album that transports me so decisively into that world than Sleeps With Angels. It's a genuine marvel and, to me, an invaluable resource. It's one of Neil Young's greatest accomplishments, even if it's not one of his top 5 greatest records, when judged song for song.
You've done an excellent job of describing an atmosphere for this album. It's definitely a bit more melancholic and subdued than your typical Crazy Horse album. And while none of the songs really stand out as a memorable hit, it's not bad music to listen to at all, especially in the context you've described.
ReplyDeleteI still like Piece of Crap - with its energy and righteous anger, it's more of a typical Crazy Horse track. Change Your Mind is a good jam, but it doesn't rise to the level of the jams on Ragged Glory, for example. I think my favorite song that reflects the mood of this album is probably Blue Eden.