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Pre-publicity for this swift follow-up to 2006’s Living With War has inevitably centred on the very belated inclusion of ‘Ordinary People’, an 18-minute epic originally cut in the late ‘80s and left to languish in Young’s well-stocked archives ever since. Finally available to hear for the first time outside of infrequent live airings, it proves to be a swaggering, horn-encrusted gem anchored to one of those simple but instantly memorable riffs in which Young has always specialised. The other nine tunes are less impressive, although ‘Boxcar’ has a certain discreet beauty and ‘No Hidden Path’ yields inspired instrumental passages.
David Davies

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The next in the increasingly mouth-watering ‘archive performance series’, as with the previous Live At Fillmore East... release, nicely packaged in card with a second DVD disc filled with grainy concert footage, archive pictures, film, radio and TV interviews and plenty more for dedicated fans to uncover, but it’s the performance that really matters here and it’s an absolute treasure trove featuring Young in a stark solo performance playing a homecoming show to a very vocal and enthusiastic Canadian crowd and previewing yet to be released classics from Harvest like ‘Heart Of Gold’, ‘Old Man’ and ‘Needle And The Damage Done’.


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Now into their seventeenth line-up (the only survivor from day one being bassist Chris Squire) - although to be fair the 2006 version is a return to the 72-74 & 76-79 ‘classic’ line-up of Howe, White, Anderson, Wakeman and Squire. This five CD collection gathers together the three most recent studio albums (Open Your Eyes, The Ladder and Magnification), plus the 1994 album Talk and a newly released live concert from 2003 recorded in Montreux featuring the above mentioned ‘classic’ line-up in fine old form and is, in consequence, the real reason for picking this up, aside from being a VFM way of acquiring the four other titles.


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Their 13th album, and it seems the self imposed restrictions of low key 2003 effort Summer Sun have been resolutely binned in favour of the mentalist genre hopping of many fans favourite Tengo effort I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. So we have everything from Velvet-esque drones through guitar wig-outs, beautiful ballads, jazz, pop and Latin American. In truth the mad careering around is occasionally tiring, but is also exactly why Yo La Tengo are such an important band, combining a complete lack of commercial nous with an obvious fans-eye view of music, if only all bands were this genuinely in love with what they do.


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Folk music in the UK (Oh, OK, make that Britain) has been long ignored by ‘hip young things’, derided as chunky jumper wearing, finger in the ear ningly nongly nonsense. Folk (actually make that nu-folk) is however now no longer a term of ridicule thanks largely to the likes of the Fence Collective, from whose ranks James Yorkston (alongside King Creosote and KT Tunstell) has emerged touting the sort of sounds which will delight both fans of UK folk and fans of US lo-fi troubadours like Bonnie Prince Billy and Smog. Warm, thoughtful and with occasional brushes of gently ululating electronica ‘...Leopard’ is an understated little gem.


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Neil Young once likened his constant to-ing and fro-ing between gentle acoustic reverie and ferocious electric outbursts to the coming up and going down of the sun. Accordingly, he has plugged back in after the becalmed Prairie Wind, delivering an unambiguous ‘fuck you’ to George W. Bush in the process. Although hardly classic Neil Young, Living With War nonetheless finds the great man admirably undeterred by the prospect of seeing his records smouldering in the cities of Texas, and it will be a hard-hearted listener (or possibly Donald Rumsfeld) who resists a cheer during the anthemic ‘Let’s Impeach the President’.


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Labelled in some parts of the press as Neil’s ‘post-aneurysm record’,Prairie Wind is a return to the great man’s acoustic, country-tinged incarnation. As you might expect from a man who is a) turning 60 in November, and b) has just suffered a life-threatening experience, these carefully-turned songs are heavy with reflections on love, friendship and the ageing process. Unlike some recent efforts, Prairie Wind is big on melody and features warm, engaged contributions from old accomplices like Spooner Oldham and Chad Rosas. Watch out, too, for Jonathan Demme’s forthcoming performance film of these songs


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****************************************************************** The Young Gods
XXY : Twenty Years 1985-2005 (PIAS)

Swiss sturm und drang merchants The Young Gods have always ploughed a very particular furrow, entirely removed from fashions and fads, just as happy to throw hardcore fans a curveball by recording Kurt Weill tributes, Gary Glitter covers and ambient electronic soundscapes as the head in a blender industrial judder found on their better know work like TV Sky. Now, twenty years into an increasingly fascinating career, we have this twenty track round-up (more if you get the expanded version) of the story-so-far, so those of you searching for an entry point into this, actually rather varied, back catalogue have now got it


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Yo La Tengo
Prisoners Of Love (Matador)

Subtitled ‘A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs 1985-2003' (eep!) this career-spanning 26 songs 2CD collection admirably collects the bands various, and varied, recordings from their first single right up to latter-day favourites. From day one Ira Kaplan (guitars, vocals and keyboards) and Georgia Hubley (drums, vocals) - James McNew (bass) joined the fray in the early 90s – have proved to be one of the finest, if not exactly most money spinning, experimental outfits around, mixing everything from Velvet-esque drone rock to damnably sweet pop, often to wondrous effect. One for novices and completists alike


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Neil Young
Greatest Hits (Warner Brothers)

Bit of a theme running through this months releases (doubtless with the xmas market in mind), but, like the Talking Heads album, this really is a superb collection with not one single duff track amongst the sixteen included. Of course you could easily delve into Young’s back catalogue, double that amount, and still come up clutching a cherry every time, but as an overview of the mans career this is pretty much spot on, from the proto grunge of Cinnamon Girl through the beautiful quavering Heart Of Gold and onto Fahrenheit 911’s bookend Rockin’ In The Free World this just oozes class.

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