''Americana'' is the 31st studio album by Canadian / American musician

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

, released on June 5, 2012. The album was Young's first collaboration with backing band Crazy Horse since their 2003 album, '' Greendale'', and its associated tour.

Background

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'' quoted Young as saying this about the tone and intent of the album:

Critical reception

''Americana'' received strongly polarized reviews from music critics. It holds an average score of 68 out of 100 at

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, based on 31 reviews.

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars, writing that "''Americana'' reveals the hard truth inside songs that have been taken for granted." Dan Forte, in ''

Vintage Guitar A vintage guitar is an older guitar usually sought after and maintained by avid collectors or musicians. The term may indicate either that an instrument is merely old, or that is sought after for its tonal quality, cosmetic appearance, or hist ...

'', said "this may be his best since ''Rust ever Sleeps'." Johnny Dee in his review for the magazine ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

'' remarks how "Young has picked every song apart, reworked melody and lyrics and made them his own", making them better for it. In a mixed review, Michael Hann of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' found the album "impossibly pointless" and felt that some songs exhibit "sloppiness" and "unnecessary lengths". ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' reviewer considers the album "largely sub-standard covers of folk songs." Robert Christgau named ''Americana'' the best album of 2012 in his year-end list for '' The Barnes & Noble Review'', and cited it as one of his top 25 albums of the 2010s decade.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, guitar Crazy Horse *

Billy Talbot William Hammond Talbot (born October 23, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of Crazy Horse. Music career Born in New York City, Talbot started his musical career singing on street corners at the age o ...

– bass, vocals *

Ralph Molina Ralph Molina (born June 22, 1943) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse. Born in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth o ...

– drums, vocals *

Frank "Poncho" Sampedro Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (born Manuel Francisco Sampedro de Victoria, February 25, 1949) is an American retired guitarist and member of the rock band Crazy Horse, known mainly for his longtime collaboration with singer-songwriter Neil Young. Samp ...

– guitar, vocals Additional personnel *Dan Greco – orchestral cymbals, tambourine *Americana Choir – vocals *

Pegi Young Margaret Mary "Pegi" Young (née Morton; December 1, 1952 – January 1, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter, environmentalist, educator and philanthropist. Music career After marrying Canadian folk rock musician Neil Young in 1978, her d ...

– vocals on "This Land is Your Land" * Stephen Stills – vocals on "This Land is Your Land"

Audio production

*Produced by Neil Young and John Hanlon with Mark Humphreys *Recorded and mixed by John Hanlon *Engineered by John Hanlon with John Hausmann and Jeff Pinn *Recorded at Audio Casa Blanca *Mixed at Redwood Digital's Analog Mixing Room *Digital mastering to 24-bit/192 kHz by Tim Mulligan at Redwood Digital. Analog to Digital Transfers by John Nowland at His Master’s Wheels *Choir recorded at East West Studios, L.A. *East West engineers assisting John Hanlon and John Hausmann: Jeremy Miller, Ben O'Neill *Choir director: Darrell Brown *Choir arrangements: Neil Young and Darrell Brown *Copiest: Lennie Moore *Choir conductor: Tim Davis *Choir: Zander Ayeroff, Lydia Bachman, Emmeline Lehmann Boddicker, Vilem Lehmann Boddicker, Joshua Britt, Mariah Britt, Willa Griffin, Nicholas Harper, Ryan Lisack, Rowen Merrill, Zoe Merrill, Megan Muchow, Nolan Muchow, Rennon O'Neal, Daniel O'Brien, Kiana Scott *Direction: Elliot Roberts for Lookout Management

Blu-ray production

*Original concept: Gary Burden *Director: Bernard Shakey *Producer: Will Mitchell *Executive producer: Elliot Rabinowitz *Post production at Upstream Multimedia *Art direction: Toshi Onuki *Editors: Mark Faulkner, Will Mitchell, Atticus Culver-Rease Americana Choir video *Produced and directed by Shakey Pictures *Camera: Benjamin Johnson *Editor: Mark Faulkner *Americana film research: Gary Burden, Cameron Kunz, Will Mitchell, Sarah Yee *Blu-ray authoring, programming at MX San Francisco, CA

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

*
Americana
' at AnyDecentMusic? {{DEFAULTSORT:Americana (Neil Young and Crazy Horse album) Neil Young albums Crazy Horse (band) albums 2012 albums Reprise Records albums Albums produced by John Hanlon Americana albums