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This album is like when youâre in the park on a summer day, a bit stoned, and everything seems to be pretty hazy. No oneâs really following a conversation per se, and no one knows how long youâve been sitting there for.
One of four highly anticipated solo records from the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young boys, released in I think â71. I dont know enough about CSNY to compare and contrast (except that I know Neil Young was never interested much in this kind of la-la-laâing on his solo efforts).
I like this record because itâs like insight into the mind of the last living Hippie, the true Hippie- snapshots and reel to reels from the end of the Love Decade. It sorta feels like Crosbyâs standing there in the rain wondering what happened to everyone, when was it hip to get paranoid? Maybe we were lost in a flower dream the whole time!
This is seriously easy listening- and I disagree with Lester Bangs who called it âthe perfect aural aid to digestionâ- this is music to wander around to, to contemplate some things to, or just to zone out to.
May 23, 2025
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A friend showed me this album 10 years ago and I don't think Iâve had a bout of depression since that I haven't walked around and listened to it in its entirety. But it kind of morphs depending on your mood. It also is a beautiful album for a summer drive. This is like mazzy star bossa nova. For years I thought it was considered a classic orchestral pop album on par with Pet Sounds or What's Going On or any other late 60s album with an emphasis on arrangement, but there's not much info about it online. On Reddit itâs just a couple people talking about how they like the album cover but donât care for the album. Anyways, I definitely will be adding a few of these songs to my funeral playlist. But donât wait until Iâm dead.
Aug 25, 2022
My friend Matthew Caws went about his music career completely backward.
His band, Nada Surf, had an MTV hit very early in their career, "Popular," and were then dropped (let go, get it?) by the major label that signed them and proceeded to make the best album of their careers on an indie label, without pressure or deadline.
As he told me once: "It's as if we got to start over again, a new band."
Matthew was living a musical life; working in a Brooklyn record store called Earwax, going to shows, writing music. In a way, "Let Go" is a record that asks "what if you had a second chance to do it all over again, the way YOU wanted to do it all along?" And then diving from head to toe into that opportunity.
I've had "Let Go" kicking around in one format or another for more than twenty years and always find something new to love about it; isn't that the very definition of "Favoritte album?"
"Blizzard of '77:" A mellow little piece of recoverred (drug) memory with a decidedly Elliott Smith vibe to it. Produced by then-Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla for $100, which the band paid to him in $1 and $5 bills from their merch sales at shows.
"Treading Water:" Linked here, the sound of what adulting in Manhattan looked like then (and still does). "Always rushing, always late."
"Neither Heaven Nor Space:" just high. "And if you sit long enough, you can hear ghost trains/As if the city speed is just in our brains/And coke's as close as we get to sugar cane."
"Blonde on Blonde:" Living that below-14th Street life, soundtracked by Dylan.
"Paper Boats:" a floaty, dreamy ode to depression. "Been thinking and drinking, all over the town/Must be gearing up for some kind of meltdown."
Years later, Matthew and I met up while they were recording their album "Lucky" at a live-in studio in Seattle called Robert Lang (it's the same place where Dave Grohl recorded the first Foo Fighters album). He had just discovered he was a dad and was in the middle of a custody fight over the child -- the mother hadn't told him it was his, there were lots of complications -- and we were comparing notes on fatherhood and just generally in the same headspace about having plenty of problems but being fortunate to have them. He's one of my favorite humans and "Let Go" is his masterpiece.
Oct 2, 2024
if youâve never explored Neil Young further than his mega hit âHarvest Moon,â I implore you to give his record âAfter the Gold Rushâ a listen. the wistful, floaty vocals and eternally resonant messages of love, loss, and heartbreak in this album make it seem so very timeless in a way that not only captures this autumn season weâre now entering(happy october!), but also give pangs of nostalgia in a not quite traceable way.
Oct 1, 2024
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Jun 3, 2025
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do it! i dont, and it has netted no positive results!
Jun 2, 2025
if im ever in a funk i throw this on and take a hot girl walk or a nice drive. itâs just one of the best feel good songs ever imo.
this is probably one of my favorite new york albums, if not #1 for me.
i paint pictures / to remember / youâre too beautiful / to put into words
May 31, 2025