I’m not sure why anyone would think this is something intended to replace the original Ragged Glory, or that it should be compared against the original studio recording as to which is “better”. It’s just a live representation of the tracks from 2023, nothing more or less imo. You see this with Neil all the time where he’ll get interested again in a certain period of time of his musical past and will dive into that for awhile.
The CD came through my letter box a couple of days ago, I thought WTF I’d ordered the clear vinyl from the G.H. UK Store. I contacted them and was told to keep the CD, no charge and the LP was delayed by a few days, I also received the high res download. Anyhow reading the mostly positive comments on this thread I’ve decided to play the CD, I was gonna wait until the LP arrived but those comments have persuaded me. Neil being ‘ragged’ and ‘glorious’ is what I need.
Wish somebody would step into the background vocals on these cuts. That’s where Promise of the Real shined with Neil, he had some quality backups from Lukas Nelson, who is a brilliant singer.
I prefer the production on this than the original. Maybe someone should do a mash-up with the original vocals.
I dont know why some are being so harsh on this album. Its not some grand artistic statement or revisionist project, its just a live album.
I’m getting ready to give this a listen after wondering if I really wanted to indulge another retread, with the cutesy retitling, while feeling this sort of represents a queue-jumping in the production line motivated by Neil’s impulsive recency bias, pushing back other stuff I’m more interested in… But the raves here have got me curious. Though the chances I’m gonna decide this is better than and somehow displaces Ragged Glory and Weld and Rust Bucket and Smell the Horse are about zero percent.
I'm getting a copy next week because I know somebody who ordered Neil tickets, and there was enough copies I get one. I like Before and After and from what I'm sampling I'll like this too. It's a Neil live album after all.
All I know is that I listened to the RSD version of this LP last night - and I loved it. I didn't compare it to Ragged Glory, just listened to what it is, and was mesmerized. Not sure why so many people seem to hate this LP. So many people compare re-do's or remixes of albums to the original and base their opinion from that perspective. In my mind that is wrong. A re-mix or re-do of an album (like Deep Purple Machine Head or this version of "Ragged Glory") is not something meant to compare to the original - it is a new item - to be looked at on it's own terms.
Live performance in front of an audience so that’s definitely a live album. Or is it because it wasn’t in front of a paying audience that it doesn’t class as a live album?
Maybe he's a part of Neil's camp, because I remember hearing Before and After was a studio album. It's even listed as his 44th studio album on wikipedia. But people are saying it was from live performances but with crowd noise edited out. Maybe Neil just really wants to hit having 50 studio albums soon and this is the way to do it.
Contrary to what Kiss believes: many of us prefer an album recorded live with no audience rather than a concert album that consists of studio takes and overdubs mixed with audience background noise. Whatever Neil releases, I'll buy it. Even if it was him on a 4-track recording reciting his shopping list while noodling around with an acoustic guitar.
Either that or he doesn't know what we're talking about here. I mean, rock records recorded in the 50s and early 60s were all "live" recordings that no one would call a LIVE ALBUM. The rooftop-concert tracks on LET IT BE might be debatable, for example, since they were done live and it wasn't proper concert. But this was an actual concert in an actual club with an actual audience (the club holds about 150, give or take). I can only assume the OP didn't realize that?
Just lookin' at the pictures for this release (CD) on Discogs. Uniformity or consistency in the artwork really is something you don't need to look for in his releases. With Barn, World Record and Before & After the artwork on the back and spine had the Original Release Series labeling. For this release nothing of all that is present except on the CD itself .
No.Weld is a live album from the tour that includes about half of the songs from Ragged Glory as well as a range of songs from his back catalogue.A pretty standard live album and definitely not a live version of the album. Return To Greendale and Dreamin’ Man have live versions of all or close to all of their source albums and nothing from other parts of his career.Just like the new release.
But the songs on Dreamin' Man Live came from a tour that had a lot of other songs too. Just the live versions from the Harvest Moon songs were put together to form the live album. They were not special performances solely of the whole studio album Harvest Moon. Actually Return To Greendale is the only live album that is truly a live version of and dedicated solely to the studio album.
