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Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Americana
[Reprise]
We're just about the last people in the world who'd complain about a record where Neil Young gets together with his old rock band and jams sloppy with the fuzz pedals turned up for the better part of an hour. As much as it pains us to say it, though, hearing Young and Crazy Horse rock out on the old-timey U.S. standards of Americana just isn't as awesome as we want it to be. The sonics are gorgeous, of course -- this is as rich and wet and harmonic as distorted guitar gets -- but the songs themselves are rather torpid. Most of the simple tunes sag under the weight of the fussy noodling, and few have the multivalent emotionalism that Young's own songs do, making the appeal here far more superficial than we'd hoped. -- Ian S. Port
The Shins
Port of Morrow
[Columbia]
The Shins' latest is like that stunning hottie that strolls into a party, the one you can't take your eyes off... until they start talking. Port of Morrow is regrettably a sexy smoke and mirrors affair, an immaculate production wrapped around far too little of James Mercer's hooky pop acumen to merit the now-illustrious mantle of a Shins record. Dude, where's the songs? Is Danger Mouse hoarding them? Perhaps his dismissed bandmates won them in their recent split. Either way, this record is aural cruise control. -- Alee Karim
Joey Ramone
Ya Know?
[BMG]
The whispers and speculation regarding unreleased Joey Ramone material following his death and first posthumous solo album more than a decade ago reared its slick, overproduced, half-baked head earlier this year with the release of Ya Know. The grim suspicion has been confirmed: Joey Ramone's unfinished material wasn't fit for release. The parade of seasoned rockers responsible for finishing the songs on Ya Know never maintained the relevance and consistency of Joey during their own careers, and it shows in their performance. The exoskeleton of Joey's signature songwriting is there, but heavy-handed production and bad tones obscure it beyond enjoyment. -- San Lefebvre
