Violent Femmes, Neil Young look back
Violent Femmes “Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition)” Craft Recordings
In 1983, Milwaukee trio Violent Femmes released their self-titled debut, an album that would quickly enter the college-rock pantheon for its spirited acoustic punk.
Forty years later, Craft Recordings has released a deluxe edition of the record, in which the cult band turns back the clock to a moment of intense creative output. “Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition)” is a competent remaster and brilliantly curated collection of artifacts, with more than a dozen demos, B-sides and live performances. The collection works to capture the band’s energy, humor and, in the live recordings, their intense audience connection.
In the ’80s, Violent Femmes recorded their debut on the cheap, capturing most of the tracks on the first take. The remaster cleans up their work nicely. Alternate versions of popular favorites such as “Blister in the Sun,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” and “Add It Up” sound crisp without sacrificing the band’s messy intensity.
The gem of the collection is the live recordings, curated from two 1981 Milwaukee shows and one 1983 New York City performance.
In Violent Femme’s early days, frontman Gordon Gano was a teenager and therefore could not play at local Milwaukee clubs. So the band did the next best thing and honed their craft as street buskers with acoustic instrumentation. The live tracks on “Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition)” hint at how audience reaction informed their unpredictable, organic sound. No wonder they would later influence bands such as Pixies, Pavement and Nirvana.
The performances also highlight Gano’s gift as a storyteller. Between songs, he stirs up the crowd and banters like a stand-up comedian. Their reaction to the murder ballad “Country Death Song” stands out, accepted not so much as a grisly true crime confessional (as the lyrics suggest) but as a spooky campfire story. It’s met with laughter.
Those who opt for a physical version of “Violent Femmes (Deluxe Edition)” will receive an accompanying book, which features a long essay by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke. It includes interviews with the band and a collection of early, joyful photos. The materials help complete the reissue’s documentation of the album’s legacy.
Neil Young “Before and After” Reprise
Leave it to Neil Young to give streaming songs a whole new meaning with a new album, “Before and After,” out today.
Young delivers reinventions of 13 deep tracks as one continuous piece of mostly acoustic music, with no breaks, over 48 minutes. The tracks appear to have been recorded on Young’s solo 2019 live tour but are presented here as a single piece of music with no audience applause.
The technique creates a new, cohesive narrative by weaving together songs from disparate points over a 54-year span. It also puts the songs in a new light, placing the 78-year-old Young’s voice with all of its aging, aching beauty front and center.
Anyone hoping to hear Young jamming out new transitions from one song to the next, a la the Grateful Dead, will be disappointed. Instead, a guitar strum here or a harmonica note there keeps the musical ball in the air.
“I’m the Ocean,” recorded with Pearl Jam on “Mirror Ball” in 1995, is dramatically reworked and sets the mood as the opening track. Three lesser-known Buffalo Springfield songs from the 1960s are the oldest tracks, with the album closer “Don’t Forget Love” from 2021’s “Barn” the most recent.
In between, there are songs Young first recorded with his longtime band Crazy Horse and a deep cut from one his most famous albums, 1970’s “After the Goldrush.” The most obscure song, “If You’ve Got Love,” has never appeared on an album until now.
As the album trails off with Young’s plaintively repeating “Don’t forget love,” in the final track of the same name, it feels like both an exhortation and a lament, a call for hope tinged with despair. It likely won’t be the last official recording the prolific Young releases, but it could stand as a fitting final musical statement.
Still, “Before and After” is far from essential Neil Young. It’s more of a late-career curiosity. And it will likely please his most devoted fans who will appreciate Young shedding new light in a beautifully stark way on rarities that otherwise would remain deeply buried in his vast catalog.