Sleeps With Angels

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Neil Young (vocals, guitar, flute, harmonica, accordion, piano, marimba); Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (guitar, piano, synthesizer, bass marimba); Billy Talbot (bass, vibraphone, bass marimba); Ralph Molina (drums).
Recorded at The Complex Studios, West Los Angeles, California.
SLEEPS WITH ANGELS was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
Personnel: Neil Young (vocals, guitar, flute, accordion, piano); Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (guitar, piano, marimba); Billy Talbot (marimba); Ralph Molina (drums).
Recording information: Complex Studios, West Los Angeles, CA (11/08/1993-04/25/1994).
Judging by the regard with which Neil Young is embraced by contemporary bands, it's clear that this rocker retained his youthful crankiness and experimental verve--willfully oblivious to popular fashions. Like John Mellencamp's DANCE NAKED, Young's SLEEPS WITH ANGELS has the mythic feel and smell of vintage, crawl-under-the-car and change-the-oil rock and roll.
SLEEPS WITH ANGELS is produced in a simple, uncluttered, rootsy manner, full of gritty, earnest appeal. Young projects the grace of an elder mentor, aware of his own mortality ("Prime Of Life"), trying to save his friends from unnecessary grief, while gently prodding his wildest children away from the precipice ("Driveby") and looking back fondly on his own ancestors ("Western Heroes").
It doesn't take too great a leap of imagination to hear "Sleeps With Angels" as "The Ballad Of Kurt & Courtney." Grungeophonic rockers such as "Change Your Mind" and "Blue Eden" answer despair with an odd mix of compassion and rage for those beyond saving, while the rest of SLEEPS WITH ANGELS seeks the saviour in shopping malls, tries to remember what made life worth living and decries disposable America (the aptly titled "Piece Of Crap"). SLEEPS WITH ANGELS is a magnificent autumnal work by a rocker who realized there are viable life options besides burning out or fading away.