Barn
by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
  • Record Label: Reprise
  • Release Date: Dec 10, 2021
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
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  1. StevenX
    Dec 11, 2021
    4
    At the beginning of the 1997 soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch-directed doc of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's tour in the previous year, Young shouts, "It's the same song!" For the most part, BARN proves that. Young's voice is trembly as ever, his guitar playing is more verve than technique, the Horse is ragged as ever. What's missing is the energy, the power that usually accompanied theAt the beginning of the 1997 soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch-directed doc of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's tour in the previous year, Young shouts, "It's the same song!" For the most part, BARN proves that. Young's voice is trembly as ever, his guitar playing is more verve than technique, the Horse is ragged as ever. What's missing is the energy, the power that usually accompanied the Young/Horse pairing. They are the same songs, slightly rearranged (in some cases, barely), and despite the much-ballyhooed arrival of Nils Lofgren in the rhythm-guitar slot, underwhelming. The only real surprise here is "Welcome Back", which sounds like a nice CSNY song with backing vocals stripped. Elsewhere, the occasional line, like when Neil refers to "the TV man", reminds you just how old the guy is, and reminds me of my great-grandfather talking back to "Sanford and Son" in the Seventies like he thought they could actually hear him. I know he wrote the famous line "it's better to burn out than to fade away", but everything since Young's "Le Noise" album has been a little of both. And for God's sake, learn a new harmonica line every few years, buddy. I know the faithful will give it a 10 every time the man passes gas, but this is one barn door that should have been kept closed.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Pitchfork
    Jan 3, 2022
    68
    On Barn, as on many recent predecessors, the tunes meander along the most obvious routes of the chords that underpin them, rarely going anywhere in particular, and almost never taking the sorts of audacious twists that might lodge them in your heart and mind. This doesn’t appear to be a case of Young losing his touch, but the result of a deliberate decision to prioritize immediacy over craft.
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  2. Beats Per Minute
    Dec 20, 2021
    68
    Barn is a really solid Crazy Horse record, definitely in the upper third of Neil’s output over the last decade or two. There’s a lot of joy and atmosphere in the set, and while some of the tracks here might be a bit too typical of their genre tropes or Neil’s past, they also bring with them a timeless, warm sense of identity and perspective totally unique in the current music world.
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  3. The Observer (UK)
    Dec 13, 2021
    80
    This is a Crazy Horse record that is both raucous and highly tuneful, saturated with in-band bonhomie.
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