Americana is the thirty-third studio album by Canadian / American musician Neil Young, released on June 5, 2012. The album was Young's first collaboration with backing band Crazy Horse since their 2003 album, Greendale, and its associated tour.

Background The album was inspired by Young's experiences in his first rock band as a teenager. His band The Squires would play rock versions of old folk standards. He explains in a June 2012 interview with Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs: "Back in 1964 or '65, the Squires were playing a folk club in Thunder Bay, Ontario [...]. A group called the Thorns did a version of 'Oh Susannah' that just knocked me on my ass."Neil Young. By: Scaggs, Austin, Rolling Stone, 0035791X, 6/21/2012, Issue 1159 Young continues in interviews for the biography Shakey:

Young's time with the Squires and his early encounters with Tim Rose and The Thorns and his early interactions with Stephen Stills were fresh in his memory due to writing one of his memoirs, Waging Heavy Peace. Young explains to NPR's Terry Gross:

Songs Young explains his interest in the grittier history and lyrics of the album's songs in American Songwriter:

Young elaborates on some of the forgotten verses of "This Land Is Your Land" for NPR:

For "Jesus' Chariot (She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain)", Young discovered the song's origins as a spiritual with darker, more meaningful lyrics while researching the song for the album.

Recording Young recorded the album with Crazy Horse at his Broken Arrow Ranch in October and November 2011. His wife, Pegi Young and Stephen Stills contribute vocals to the final track. Several tracks also feature a choir. Young and Crazy Horse would record Psychedelic Pill, an album of original songs, at the same location a few months afterward.

Critical reception

Americana received strongly polarized reviews from music critics. It holds an average score of 68 out of 100 at Metacritic, based on 31 reviews. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars, writing that "Americana reveals the hard truth inside songs that have been taken for granted." Dan Forte, in Vintage Guitar, said "this may be his best since Rust [Never Sleeps]." Johnny Dee in his review for the magazine Classic Rock remarks how "Young has picked every song apart, reworked melody and lyrics and made them his own", making them better for it.

In a mixed review, Michael Hann of The Guardian found the album "impossibly pointless" and felt that some songs exhibit "sloppiness" and "unnecessary lengths". NME reviewer considers the album "largely sub-standard covers of folk songs."

Robert Christgau named Americana the best album of 2012 in his year-end list for The Barnes & Noble Review, and cited it as one of his top 25 albums of the 2010s decade.

Track listing

Personnel Neil Young – vocals, guitar, production Crazy Horse Billy Talbot – bass, vocals Ralph Molina – drums, vocals Frank "Poncho" Sampedro – guitar, vocals Additional personnel Dan Greco – orchestral cymbals, tambourine Americana Choir – vocals Zander Ayeroff, Lydia Bachman, Emmeline Lehmann Boddicker, Vilem Lehmann Boddicker, Joshua Britt, Mariah Britt, Willa Griffin, Nicholas Harper, Ryan Lisack, Rowen Merrill, Zoe Merrill, Megan Muchow, Nolan Muchow, Rennon O'Neal, Daniel O'Brien, Kiana Scott Pegi Young – vocals on "This Land is Your Land" Stephen Stills – vocals on "This Land is Your Land"

Additional roles John Hanlon – production, recording, mixing, engineering Mark Humphreys – production John Hausmann, Jeff Pinn – engineering Tim Mulligan – mastering John Nowland – analog to digital transferring Jeremy Miller, Ben O'Neill – assistant engineering Darrell Brown – choir direction and arrangements Tim Davis – choir conduction Elliot Roberts – management

Blu-ray production Gary Burden – original concept, film research Bernard Shakey (Neil Young) – direction Will Mitchell – production, editing, film research Elliot Rabinowitz – executive production Toshi Onuki – art direction Mark Faulkner, Atticus Culver-Rease – editing Benjamin Johnson – choir video camera Cameron Kunz, Sarah Yee – film research

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2012) Peakposition

Year-end charts Chart (2012) Position Canadian Albums Chart42 US Billboard 200182 US Rock Albums Chart52

References

External links Americana at AnyDecentMusic?