Search - Neil Young & Crazy Horse :: Zuma

Ted S. (stsaks) from AVON, NY
Reviewed on 6/23/2007...

Feedback laced songs, some rockers some others. First Neil Young LP I owned years ago, and wore it out. One of his better

Zuma's A Killer

Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 05/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Zuma was the first studio album that was credited to Neil Young & Crazy Horse since his second release, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. While various members of the band appeared on albums in between the releases, Zuma contains the power rocking sound that only the complete band could produce. "Barstool Blues" is an underrated gem that has bluesy guitar riff that pops throughout the song. "Drive Back" and "Don't Cry No Tears" have a grungy sound. "Stupid Girl" is great song with a great vocal. "Pardon My Heart" is an acoustic based number as is the closer "Through My Sails" which features Crosby, Stills & Nash and was a leftover from the aborted sessions in 1974 that was supposed to yield the band's followup to Deja Vu. The standout track on the album is "Cortez The Killer" with its droning guitar solo and vivid lyrics, the song is tremendous."

Easily one of Neil's greatest albums

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 09/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Without any possible question, this is one of Neil Young's greatest albums, and given the extraordinary length of his career and the amazing number of albums that he has made, that is saying something. This is also one of his most influential albums, producing a pattern for a host of guitar oriented garage and alternative bands in the 1980s and 1990s. It is impossible to listen to a band like Thin White Rope or Eleventh Dream Day or Nirvana and escape the conclusion that the members of the bands all grew up listening to the cuts on this disc.



Although this is widely known as one of the seminal guitar albums in the history of rock, there are two paradoxes in that claim. First, a couple of the songs are entirely acoustic and feature none of the grungy guitar found throughout the rest of the disc. "Pardon My Heart" is not merely acoustic, but soft and gentle as well. "Through My Sails" is a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song. For me, it is the weakest cut on the album, and a potent reminder to me of why I prefer Neil Young on his own. The second paradox is that in many ways Neil Young really isn't a very good guitarist. Technically, there are probably a host of high school guitarists that surpass him. His solos are some of the most elementary in the history of rock. Nonetheless, Young seems to get more musical mileage out of relatively meager chops of any guitarist in history. He might not be a virtuoso, but in this album he virtually reinvents grunge guitar, and paved the way for a host of imitators.



Guitar aside, what drives this amazing album is the great, great songs that line up one after another. "Don't Cry No Tears" gives way for the even more stunning "Danger Bird." A couple of songs later we get one of my favorite Young songs, "Barstool Blues." "Stupid Girl" is not a work of misogyny like the Stones' "Under My Thumb," but yet another excellent guitar driven song. "Drive Back" is another great song that then gives away to the song that seems to define the entire album, the epic, majestic "Cortez the Killer," in which Neil gets to sing about his recurring subject of the European exploitation of the New World.



Neil Young has other albums nearly as good as this, and possibly a couple of others that are even better, like AFTER THE GOLD RUSH and TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, but there isn't a single one of his discs that I have listened to as often or with as much pleasure. This truly is a disc that ought to be in the library of every serious rock fan."