STORYTONE
| Neil Young
STORYTONE
Storytone is the 34th studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released on November 4, 2014 on Reprise Records.[12] The album was released in two formats: a single disc, which features orchestral and big band arrangements of the songs, and a deluxe edition which includes stripped-back recordings of the songs. Young subsequently released a third version of the album, Mixed Pages of Storytone, merging elements of both, later in the year. - WIKIPEDIA
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Nov 4, 2014 - is unabashedly melodramatic and earnest, occasionally sounding more like the passions of a 17-year-old instead of someone on the brink of their seventies.
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RollingStone
2014 - The great contrarian turns in a spare, intimate solo album – and an orchestral version of the same.
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CoS
2014 - sincerity doesn’t always equal success, and Storytone fares much better in the genre that already plays to his strengths.
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UCR
2014 - stylistic leaps ultimately make this a record without much direction, especially because the environmental theme doesn't hold up the entire time.
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The Guardian
2014 - orchestra-backed album that’s better without the orchestra.
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SLANT
2014 - Storytone’s gloppy Disney-movie strings and half-assed singing can be trying to sit through at times.
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The New York Times
2014 - The vocals hold just enough honest rough spots to celebrate, everywhere else, the purity and committed fragility of Mr. Young’s voice, which is high and clear, even though he’ll be 69 on Nov. 12.
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DAILY NEWS
2014 - Brace yourself: The pioneer of grunge has gone grand. And he's finally singing about his divorce as well.
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NME
2014 - Neil Young's 35th LP boasts both solo and orchestra-backed soppy compositions.
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American Songwriter
2014 - The songs on Storytone glide between those highs and lows with very few false moves, making this one stylistic detour that takes Neil Young very close to his artistic home.
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paste
2014 - Certainly, the most innovative thing about Storytone is its presentation, with each of the album’s 10 songs recorded in acoustic and fully orchestrated versions.
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exclaim
2014 - When he calls the 92-piece orchestra in, the results are mixed.
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billboard
2014 - Young's scratchy vocal fails to complement its exquisitely cinematic orchestration until the final two lines show a fleshed-out poignancy. It's the same, too, with his blues performances.... At times, though, Young and his many collaborators do gel.
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The Observer
2014 - As Storytone goes on, a pink-umbrella cocktail of vulnerability, bravery and Disney, it becomes engrossing--car-crash listening, even.
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The Telegraph
2014 - It’s a long way from the rocker's angry persona, but he’s always had a soppy side. Sometimes the lyrics are also sloppy.
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ALL MUSIC
2014 - By delivering this big, sloppy valentine to everything he is and everything he loves, he's not being neat but he is true to himself.
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popMATTERS
2014 - Sometimes it sounds like a deathly serious joke. Other times, it sounds like nothing more than a nicely produced notion that happened to cross his mind one day.
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Boston Globe
2014 - You can admire its uncompromising spirit, but you can just as easily loathe its saccharine sound.
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Chicago Tribune
2014 - The orchestral Storytone comes off as a showy distraction. It's best ignored. Head for the acoustic version instead, which contains a handful of Young's better recent songs, syrup-free.
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Record Collector
2014 - Storytone’s deluxe edition carries an extra disc of solo takes: mostly Young and ukulele. It’s more palatable, but perhaps doesn’t reveal any more depth to the material.
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Blurt
2014 - Listeners are best advised to head directly to disc two and regard the set with strings as a curiosity and an example of eccentric experimentation best left on the shelf.
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AV/MUSIC
2014 - If A Letter Home worked to privilege and highlight songwriting tools like melody and lyricism, Storytone does the opposite, overwhelming any inherent heart or soul in Young’s original compositions.
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glide magazine
2014 - Young’s either hedging his bets or simply being his unpredictable self by offering the new record in a solo acoustic version as well as the more lavishly arranged set of songs.
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The Sydney Morning Herald
2014 - Not quite a classic, but close.
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meg
2014 - Some of the cringier moments are a little more palatable minus the over the top arrangements. Never predictable, who knows what the crazy old git will try next?
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Financial Times
2014 - The colossal orchestra turns Young into a Disneyfied hippy, protesting about environmental ruin over cinematic pablum.
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musomuso
2014 - Ultimately "Storytone" is a mixed bag. It does contain a very good acoustic album although it is nowhere near past glories like "Harvest Moon" or "Comes a Time". Alternatively "Storytone's'' orchestra versions have that "listen once and put them away" quality.
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stuff
2014 - What with the album's apparent educational aspect, and the fact that Young's frail and consequently plaintive vocals can't help but cast a rather glum air over proceedings, in combination they render Storytone as a rather sad reversal of 'old man, take a look at my life', to 'young man, take a look at my life ...'
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The GRYPHON
The last three tracks on the album are arguably the best Young has produced in many years. More subdued in their use of orchestra, delicate piano lines and acoustic strumming dominate and are supplemented only by the occasional surge of strings.
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The National
2014 - For Young fanatics, there’s a certain amount of intrigue to be found on the solo disc and a huge amount of novelty on the second.
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newsOK
2014 - “Storytone” demonstrates that the Canadian dark horse is still in the running, still creatively ambitious, adventurous and relevant after all these years. Long may he continue to run.
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RENOWNED FOR SOUND
2014 - Too much of a good thing is definitely more desirable than diminishing returns for someone of such iconic status.
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Baugh's Blog
2015 - So here we are again − in late-career, Young takes a second crack at putting opulent and brassy arrangements beneath his rather slight and idiosyncratic tenor vocals. Does it work? In a word, no.
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The Irish Times
2014 - In all, his is a tender and oddly vulnerable voice almost surprised at his situation.
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nzherald.co.nz
2014 - Bad life often makes good art, as here. Twice.
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The REVUE
2014 - I have decided that Neil Young is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get but I actually do admire that about him. Storytone just happens to be a box that I didn’t entirely enjoy. Ben Yung
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GULF NEWS ENTERTAINMENT
2014 - Not that the orchestrated versions are a complete failure, it’s just that taken as a whole Storytone works best, and packs a bigger emotional punch, when Young sticks with the more familiar acoustic guitar and piano.
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Cherwell
2014 - Young’s voice, however, is ultimately not able to match the quality of his orchestral arrangement.
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FLOOD MAGAZINE
2014 - Storytone comes in two formats: a full orchestral album and its acoustic demos. These two versions band-aid each other’s weak points to make this one of Young’s best albums since 2005’s Prairie Wind.
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Empty Lighthouse Magazine
2014 - While that album didn't reward repeat listenings, you have to respect Neil for trying something different.
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Addicted to Noise
2014 - Storytone could easily be viewed as Neil’s tribute to Bobby Darin.
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The Music Nerd Chronicles
2014 - When you have such a storied history with music as Young does, it inadvertently shines an even brighter light on career stumbles like Storytone.
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The Daily Reveille
2014 - “Storytone,” reflects the tone of an overly emotional teenager on the brink of tears during a tantrum.
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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
2014 - Overall, “Storytone” mostly misses the mark not only because of its confounding duplicity but its weak songwriting.
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Blurt
2014 - At this point in his nearly 50 year career, the predictability of Neil Young’s unpredictability is a given.
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