On the Beach by Neil Young

This is an interesting album that happens to be one of my favorites. Neil Young was in a weird state in 1974 and this collection of songs finds him paranoid, pissed off and worn out. Railing against Nixon, cliquey scenesters and the consumer culture that was beginning to take shape, he sounds like a lost man who is finally starting to find his way in a world gone mad. Side one is mellow and almost optimistic, if only for a moment, while side two paints a haunting picture of a dismayed man on the verge of giving up. The last three songs are so lonely and submissively angry that they’re depressing to hear; he sounds powerless. Though the album didn’t sell well and wasn’t even released on CD until recently, I like to think that it gave a voice to other disaffected 20-somethings that were fed up with the way things were going, even if they weren’t about to do anything about it.

LISTEN TO AMBULANCE BLUES AND SEE THE SKY ABOUT TO RAIN