Earth (Neil Young and Promise of the Real album)

Last updated
Earth
Neil Young & Promise of the Real - Earth (album cover).jpg
Live album by
ReleasedJune 17, 2016 (2016-06-17)
RecordedJuly 5 – October 17, 2015
VenueVarious
Genre Rock
Length97:26
Label Reprise
Producer
Neil Young chronology
Bluenote Café
(2015)
Earth
(2016)
Peace Trail
(2016)
Promise of the Real chronology
Something Real
(2016)
Earth
(2016)
Noise & Flowers
(2022)

Earth is a live album by Neil Young and Promise of the Real, released on June 17, 2016 on Reprise Records. Recorded during the band's Rebel Content Tour in 2015, the album was produced by Young and John Hanlon and features live performances augmented by studio overdubs and additional nature and animal sounds.

Contents

Background

Young described the album as "a collection of 13 songs from throughout my life, songs I have written about living here on our planet together." [1] The album's mix also includes nature and animal sounds, including turkeys, insects, crows, and thunder. [2] Young said that he was inspired by animals because "they don't have this uptight vibe. They don't have all the hatred and everything." [3]

Young appeared on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron to promote the album. During the interview, he described Earth as "an ear movie" and said that he wanted to break the rules of live recordings. He discussed a scene in the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula where the camera shows the perspective of a flying bat, and said this was an inspiration for the album. He revealed that the French horn part in the Earth version of "After the Gold Rush" was lifted from the master tapes of the original 1970 recording of the song, which he intended to have a disorienting effect. He also revealed that the backup singers on Earth are professional vocalists who primarily record commercial jingles, which he intended as an "edgy" choice. He directed the singers to sing optimistically about Exxon and Monsanto, and "make it sound like a beautiful day." [4]

Prior to a scheduled phone interview with Newsweek , Young's publicist instructed writer Zach Schonfeld to listen to the album in the Pono format. Young hung up on Schonfeld three minutes into the call because he did not believe Schonfeld had listened to the entire record. [5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 66/100 [6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Entertainment Weekly B− [8]
Pitchfork Media 6.5/10 [9]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Exclaim! 6/10 [11]

Earth has a score of 66 out of 100 on the review aggregator website Metacritic, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [6] In his positive review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Earth "one of Young's genuinely inspired nutso albums" and wrote that "animal sounds infect Earth, sometimes swallowing the guitars, sometimes chirping along in rhythm, an effect that is precisely the opposite of natural." [7] Writing for Rolling Stone , David Fricke compared the "urgent" performances to "1991's live Weld cut at Farm Aid with the last-stand fervor of Freedom ." [10] Pitchfork Media's Sam Sodomsky wrote that "Simply put, the album would probably be better without [the animal sounds]," but stated that Earth overall "is surprisingly balanced and well-considered," thanks to "the thematic consistency of Young's songwriting" and the "loose, steady groove" of Promise of the Real. [9] Exclaim!'s Stuart Henderson called the album "another daft musical statement", criticizing its "barn-based rock'n'roll". [11]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Neil Young.

Disc 1
No.TitleOriginal releaseLength
1."Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)" Ragged Glory 5:40
2."Seed Justice"-3:58
3."My Country Home"Ragged Glory6:02
4."The Monsanto Years" The Monsanto Years 8:20
5."Western Hero" Sleeps With Angels 4:03
6."Vampire Blues" On the Beach 5:55
7."Hippie Dream" Landing on Water 5:54
8."After the Gold Rush" After the Gold Rush 4:09
9."Human Highway" Comes a Time 4:11
Disc 2
No.TitleOriginal releaseLength
1."Big Box"The Monsanto Years9:20
2."People Want to Hear About Love"The Monsanto Years5:20
3."Wolf Moon"The Monsanto Years6:30
4."Love and Only Love"Ragged Glory28:04

Personnel

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Additional musicians

Additional roles

Charts

Chart (2016)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [12] 37
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [13] 9
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [14] 18
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [15] 38
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [16] 30
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [17] 32
French Albums (SNEP) [18] 29
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [19] 10
Greek Albums (IFPI) [20] 54
Irish Albums (IRMA) [21] 27
Italian Albums (FIMI) [22] 33
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ) [23] 2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [24] 30
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [25] 49
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [26] 40
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [27] 14
UK Albums (OCC) [28] 14
US Billboard 200 [29] 138
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [30] 12
US Folk Albums (Billboard) [31] 6
US Vinyl Albums (Billboard) [32] 22
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) [33] 6

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