Noise & Flowers (2022)

The European tour with Promise of the Real in the summer of 2019 might end up being Neil’s last large venue tour. Spanning nine dates, the band played arenas and stadiums. Almost half of them were in Germany. Hanging over this tour was the death of Neil’s manager of over 50 years, Eliot Roberts. Eliot was probably Neil’s closest friend, someone with a reputation to rival David Briggs. Briggs and Roberts were the fiercest of allies to Neil (but not exactly of each other) and losing Roberts leaves another large hole in Neil’s life. Four years and one global pandemic later, Neil has yet to mount a tour again, despite sporadic and short live appearances. It’s quite possible we may never see another Neil tour, solo, with POTR, or with Crazy Horse. Which makes Noise & Flowers incredibly disappointing. Neil and the band play well, but the sound is barely above an audience recording with an echo effect meant to reflect the large spaces the band played in.Whatever they did is more “bootleg” sounding than some of the Official Bootleg Series. It just makes it sound muddy and out of focus. It’s doubly a shame because the track list is interesting, with a lot of long unheard songs. POTR learned something like 50 of Neil’s songs so he could just call out stuff he was thinking of. If only we could properly hear them.

Kicking it off with yet another rendition of “Mr. Soul,” Neil’s voice sounds like it’s coming to us through a paper tube. The reverb on Neil’s voice is actually echoing. You really aren’t supposed to notice that effect from reverb. It really flattens the music out. Just look at track two: it’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” one of my favorite early Crazy Horse tunes. The sound is so weak there is no reason to listen to this over the original studio recording (or the Fillmore East live album).

I don’t want to spend too much of this review talking about Promise of the Real, but the one thing I want to talk about is how Neil sounds when he plays with them. On Noise & Flowers, I get the sense he’s leaning on them to carry the songs for the most part. Neil’s voice is buried in the harmonies, and most of music I hear is drums and rhythm guitar, with Lukas Nelson taking quite a few of the solos, too. It just doesn’t sound like Neil is leading them, but rather following them. I swear Neil loses the rhythm during the chorus of “Rockin’ in the Free World” as the POTR machine just carries on at their own cadence. Very odd experience from a notoriously picky and strong band leader. I’ve said before that Neil and POTR always sounds like a Neil cover band, and this live album really gives that impression, unfortunately. I fully admit this is bias, though. I grew up on Neil with Crazy Horse.

The pleasures to be had include a galloping “Throw Your Hatred Down,” which makes a lot of sense, given that the song comes from Neil and Pearl Jam, another strong, multi-layered band that employed a similar three guitar attack and crashing drums style with Neil. Perhaps relying on material like this would have been a better experience than POTR applying their sound to perennial Crazy Horse classics.

Neil (and Niko Bolas) defended the sound of this collection over on Neil Young Archives quite a bit, but I really wonder what would have happened if John Hanlon had produced this with Neil instead. Briggs would never have put this tin can recording out, and I have to believe Hanlon would feel the same. Given this treatment and desire to replicate stadium sound, I’ve been fairly nervous about the forthcoming release of Alchemy, which documents Poncho’s last tour with Crazy Horse from 2012-2014. Hopefully the sound on that is more akin to Weld or Live Rust.

The accompanying film of Noise & Flowers is a better overall experience. Seeing this band on stage in the large stadiums and arenas makes a lot more sense of the sound. I’m not a big fan of Neil’s penchant for taking stationary camera shots and panning and zooming them. It makes high quality video pixelated and look extremely cheap. But the film does a great of showcasing that this run of shows and this collection is really all about honoring Eliot Roberts, which is lovely. I can’t say I’ll ever watch it again, but I enjoyed the film much more than the live album, at least.

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