Disclaimer: my view on this album will probably change in the coming
couple of months. I have yet to hear it from other than mp3 source
and at the time of writing I've had two songs on constant replay in
Winamp, four more for a week on youtube and the remaining four only
first heard yesterday.

Anyway... and much to my surprise, I really like this album so far.
It's certainly different than everything since Freedom, since it
points in so many musical directions. But there is a theme here, in
the lyrics. The lyrics that come out much better with the music than
one would have expected after just reading them online earlier.

As others have pointed out, this is Freedom II. The listener is
thrown between different musical styles all through the album. But it
works, at least for me. I find three centerpieces; OP of course, then
the one-two punch of Spirit Road and DOM and finally the long NHP.
These four songs make up 2/3 of the album and are really dominant. In
between comes six shorter and quiter pieces of varying quality.

1. B BB
I was never impressed with this on OW3 and didn't like the version on
Farm Aid either. Thus my expectations were really low, but dammit, it
works! The Sail Away intro from FA is here, but Neil sings it in a
much softer way. Nice backing vocals and acoustic arrangement makes
me think it would have fit on Comes a Time. Good start.

2. Boxcar
I've always liked the Times Square version without finding it
essential. This version is different, the lyric order has changed
again, the banjo (guitjo?) borrows from cousin Southern Pacific
(think 99 tour). Not bad, I like it.

3. OP
What remains to be said? Definitely one of the best Neil recordings
ever imo. Someone pointed out earlier that the backing vocals were
out of sync and they sure are, but I think it puts emphasis to the
words in a really good way. Wonderful through all of it's 18+ minutes
and this is probably one of maybe 10 Neil recordings that I will
never grow tired of. Well, maybe Neil comes close to being
sappy/preachy in a couple of the verses, but he pulls it through.

4. Shining Light
One of two songs that I've only heard since yesterday. The early
reports I've seen ranged from bad to ok until I read Tom's praise
yesterday. What I hear is a pretty good song, but a kind that Neil
can't really do justice. Certainly not great, but like (I think) JG
said: I don't hate it... And it works well after the OP outburst.

5. The Believer
My least favourite of the youtube quartet. First impression: weak AYP
outtake. But this one grows on repeated listens. I like the little
guitar lick and sparse production. And again, the sequencing is good
here, it's fairly short and leads to....:

6. Spirit Road
It took me 5 seconds to fall in love with this song! Ragged Glory,
baby! Someone suggested that BBB and Boxcar were older recordings
based on how Neil's voice sounded. I don't agree, but on Spirit Road
he sounds YOUNG! A newspaper review I read online said something
like "there ain't much to it, but that's what NY does best". Yeah!

7. Dirty Old Man
Neil seems to have some kind of Freudian obsession making him have to
include this kind of song on every other albums. POC, Motorcycle
Mama, T-Bone, Wellfare Mothers, He Was the King, Old King, ... But
this is one of his better in this vein. I thought this would be a
song I would constantly skip, but so far I haven't. Hell, I even like
it!

8. Ever After
Nope. Boring country waltz. Poor melody, repeated lyrics indicating
he didn't make much of an effort. But there's some nice little
interplay between Neil on electric guitar and Ben Keith on pedal
steel going on in the background. But again the sequencing is good,
since it's between SR/DOM and .....

9. No Hidden Path
Someone kindly sent me an mp3 of NHP a couple of weeks ago. I can't
say I was very impressed upon first listen, there's no really good
melody here and I only found a poor ancestor to Scenery. But after 4
or 5 listens I found myself almost hypnotised by the guitar riff and
things started to happen. I know most people had an instant love
affair with NHP, I guess I'm (too) slow? But finally I got there too,
this is a great song!

10. The Way
This is the kind of song Graham Nash could bring to a CSN/Y project
and be bashed for (maybe by me too). But Neil gets away with it. It's
sugar sweet and sappy and the children's choir adds even more to it.
And it's just amazingly beautiful. I get glimpses of the marine
munchkins from Lost in Space, but this is a completely different
song. But equally great. A sad tune that comes out as an optimistic
ending to the album.


It's really to early to say, but right now I'd rank this one as one
of the two strongest Neil albums since the early 90's. Surprising, I
thought it would feel patchy but it really works (for me). I wouldn't
say the average song quality here is better than on for instance
Prairie Wind, but as a whole I find this album much stronger.


Pontus

.PS For those of you europeans who, like me, couldn't wait: don't ask
where I found it. You'll need google and a bittorrent client and it
will be on a hard disk near you in no time.

.PPS And for those of you who object to downloading official
material: don't bother flaming me, I have already ordered CDII and
thus will pay my dues.