Track Listing

1. Big Time
2. Music Arcade
3. This Town
4. Baby What You Want Me To Do
5. Loose Change
6. Slip Away
7. Changing Highways
8. Scattered (Let's Think About Livin')

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49651 in Music
• Released on: 1996-06-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
BROKEN ARROW is the third straight album on which Neil Young has splattered loud electric-guitar notes all over his folk-rock melancholy. You'd have to go back to Young's amazing mid-1970s records to find a similar streak, and you'd have to go back just as far to find Young in a groove this consistent, this good. In his '90s incarnation, Young seems to be upping the ante each go-round. It's as if he's completely enveloped in his own noise, and taking great pleasure in seeingjust how much he can get away with. The first three songs on BROKEN ARROW are nearly a half-hour long between them, andthey reach that length through long, scratchy, meandering solos that evoke both jazz and punk-rock (think Sonic Youth) in their simultaneous bid to be transcendent and noisy. In "Loose Change", Young solos for a miraculous six-and-a-half minutes over a single chord.
By the end of the third song,Young appears emotionally spent, desperate to break the mood. The second half of BROKEN ARROW consists of comparativelylight and compact electric folk-rock songs, a cosmic acoustic number and an odd little live recording of bluesman JimmyReed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do". It's a potpourri thatbelies the strength of songwriting and performance that this wayward rocker has carried into middle age. "I'm still living the dream we had/For me it's not over", he sings over a haze of guitar distortion in "Big Time". At age 50, in fact,he sounds as if he's just starting.

Customer Reviews

A listening experience
Broken Arrow is one of my favourite Neil Young records. It's dark and brooding, yet is an illuminating and rewarding listening experience. The first three songs all end on hypnotic one chord jams, full of the sloppyness that makes Crazy Horse for me so appealing. Final song 'Baby What You Want Me To Do' was recorded live with just one mic and... I dunno... it just captures something that a standard soundboard recording would have missed. I felt I was at the show it was taped at, I felt I was there.

Broken Arrow is perhaps not the most accessible Neil record but any fan of Cortez and the like might be interested.

What the 'Ragged Glory' fans have been waiting for...
This albumn starts, in my mind, along the same lines as 'Ragged Glory'. Back by Neil's side are Crazy Horse (for the whole albumn) to bring us another classic rock epic.

The first three songs are the best as Neil and the band really get into their stride. Each are full length rockers with lengthy guitar solos and the deep groove that we have come to expect from Neil and Crazy Horse's collaborations.

After that, the albumn tends to get progressively more mellow (although never quite achieving that) until it is drawn to a close by a live blues track that he preportedly performed anonymously at a suprise gig.

All in all, a very good albumn that is only slightly let down by one or two of the later songs that don't quite make the grade.

Simply beautiful
Although I am not a serious Neil Young collector (I only own three albums), and can not be said to be a great authority on the field, I find the sound and "spirit" of this album to be simply overwhelming