If 60’s was one big night of party in the world of popular music, this album will easily go down as the best morning-after hangover cure. Appropriately released in 1970, “After The Gold Rush” presents the singer-songwriter Neil Young largely in a mellow country-folk mode, creating one of the finest work in his vast repertoire.

Buffalo Springfield was long gone and Young in the form of CSNY had just released the massive Déjà vu. Simultaneously, he was working on solo projects and this was his third such project. Most of the album was recorded at a makeshift basement studio in Young's home during the spring with CSNY bassist Greg Reeves, drummer Ralph Molina of Crazy Horse, and the upcoming eighteen-year-old musical prodigy Nils Lofgren (later a part of Crazy Horse and E-Street Band) on the piano.

Side 1 of the LP opens up with Tell Me Why, a soft country melody having just two guitars and Young’s sonorous vocals. This is followed by the title track which is a plea for the environment. In addition to Young’s gentle vocals, the track just has a piano and French horn. Covered by many other musicians, including Thom Yorke (my favourite version), this is minimalism in music at its best. Next is the sentimental Only Love Can Break Your Heart, supposedly written for Graham Nash (CSNY) after Nash’s split from Joni Mitchell. Peaking at #33, it became Young’s first top 40 hit. Then comes the powerful, guitar shredding, politically fuelled Southern Man, followed by the last track of the side. Alittle beauty called Till The Morning Comes.

Side 2 begins with Young covering an old popular track, Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson/Chet Atkins, 1957). What comes up next is perhaps the finest cut of the album, the depressing and almost eerie, Don’t Let It Bring You Down. Movie buffs will remember the brilliant usage Annie Lennox’s cover of the song in Sam Mendes’s American Beauty. Next is a slow piano ballad called Birds, followed by the jangly rocker, When You Dance I Can Really Love. The penultimate track is the sonorousI Believe In You, a typical Young ballad. The album ends with another little beauty, Cripple Creek Ferry.

I still remember how I discovered this gem of an album, way back in 2001 when someone I knew was discarding all his magnetic tapes in the favour of CDs and I happened to be around. Because I had been relishing Neil Young’s compilation called Decade again and again, I just pounced on it. The cover art itself was highly intriguing. It became my first Neil Young album and I haven’t looked back since then - from magnetic tapes to CDs and now, LPs.

Because of his multiple avatars, Neil Young means different things to different people. Sixties hippie, country-rock superstar, grunge godfather, Americana pioneer…But for me, he is and always will be that incredible singer-songwriter who also happens to be one of the finest guitarists (and a harp player) ever.

Year: 1970 Genre: Country rock, Folk rock Duration: 35:10 Label: Reprise Producer: Neil Young, David Briggs, Kendall Pacios

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Meraj Hasan

Meraj Hasan is a Mumbai based communication professional (and an amateur poet/musician) with a passion for listening to music the vinyl way. His 25 year old Technics turntable along with a humble collection of LPs across genres like Classic rock, Classical, Blues and Jazz (amongst others) are his prized possessions.

He can be reached at +91 9833410791 or email: meraj.hasan@gmail.com