Freedom (Neil Young album)



Freedom is the eighteenth studio album by Canadian rock musician Neil Young, released on October 2, 1989. Freedom effectively relaunched Young's career after a largely unsuccessful decade. After many arguments (and a lawsuit), Young left Geffen Records in 1988 and returned to his original label, Reprise, with This Note's for You. Freedom, however, brought about a new, critical and commercially successful album. This album was released in the United States as an LP record and a CD in 1989.

Production
Three of the songs on Freedom ("Don't Cry," "Eldorado" and "On Broadway") had previously been released on the Japan and Australia-only EP Eldorado.

Freedom contains one song, "Rockin' in the Free World", that bookends the album in acoustic and electric variants, a stylistic choice previously featured on Rust Never Sleeps. The song, despite lyrics critical of the then-new George H. W. Bush administration, became the de facto anthem of the collapse of Communism. An edited cut of the electric version of the song was used over the final credits of Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11, and the song was re-released as a single at the time of the film's release.

Reception
Freedom has received mainly positive reviews, especially in comparison to the rest of his '80s work. AllMusic's William Ruhlmann rated the album four-and-a-half out of five stars, explaining that it "was the album Neil Young fans knew he was capable of making, but feared he would never make again." He also stated that "there were tracks that harked back to [his] acoustic-based, country-tinged albums." Robert Christgau, writing for The Village Voice, rated it an A. He declared that it contains a combination of "the folk ditties and rock galumph that made him famous" and "the Nashvillisms and horn charts that made him infamous." He also stated that "it features a bunch of good stuff about a subject almost no rocker white or black has done much with--crack". David Fricke of Rolling Stone rated it five out of five stars. He called it "the sound of Neil Young, another decade on, looking back again in anger and dread." He also explained that it is about "the illusion of freedom" and "Young's refusal to accept that as the last word on the subject." He summed up the review by calling it "a harsh reminder that everything still comes with a price."

AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald offered strong praise for the second track, "Crime in the City", calling it "undoubtedly the centerpiece of the album", "cinematic in scope", and "one of Neil Young's most accomplished works".

Personnel

 * Neil Young – vocals; acoustic guitar; electric guitar; harmonica; piano on 9
 * Chad Cromwell – drums
 * Rick "The Bass Player" Rosas – bass
 * Frank "Poncho" Sampedro – guitar on 2, 5 (as "Poncho Villa"), 9, 12; keyboards on 5, 7; mandolin on 11; vocals on 12
 * Ben Keith – alto saxophone on 2, 7; pedal steel guitar on 2, 6, 11; keyboards on 10, 12; vocals on 11

Additional personnel

 * Linda Ronstadt – vocals on 4, 6
 * Tony Marsico – bass on 10
 * Steve Lawrence – tenor saxophone on 2, 7
 * Larry Cragg – baritone saxophone on 2, 7
 * Claude Cailliet – trombone on 2, 7
 * John Fumo – trumpet on 2, 7
 * Tom Bray – trumpet on 2, 7

Technical

 * Neil Young – producer, mixing engineer
 * Niko Bolas – producer, recording engineer except on tracks 1 4, mixing engineer except on tracks 1 4
 * Tim Mulligan – digital engineer, recording engineer on 4
 * Harry Sitam – senior technical engineer
 * Dave Collins – digital editor
 * Doug Sax – digital mastering engineer
 * Dave Hewitt – recording engineer on 1, mixing engineer on 1

Charts
Album

Single