Trans, a vocoder-laden work often derided as Neil Young’s mid-life crisis in album form, is much better than its reputation. Bon mot master, Alfred Soto puts “Like an Inca” and “Transformer Man” in his Young top 20. I’m too busy with year-end ’08 list-making to know if I’d wholly concur, but the high praise is certainly warranted. This epiphany would also explain my ardor for Heartbreak & 808s.
I take back all the bad things I ever said about the ’80s.
See also, this vintage Rolling Stone review that pretty much nails it.
Download:
MP3: Neil Young-”Transformer Man”
MP3: Neil Young-”Like An Inca” (Left-Click)
10 comments
Maggie says:
December 13, 2008 at 4:35 pm (UTC -7)
Zilla, I just can’t do it. I can’t like 808′s.
I keep trying. The beat of every song is amazing, but to me, the whole album sounds like it was inspired by Kid Rock’s “Only God Knows Why”.
Tell me man. I feel like I’m missing something.
Sach says:
December 13, 2008 at 9:24 pm (UTC -7)
You’re crazy for this one Jeff. This inspires a mixture of horror, laughter and the desire to write a sequel to Napoleon Dynamite. Still, I really can’t cosign this as a Top 20 Young track. The catalogue is too deep with gems.
brandonsoderberg says:
December 14, 2008 at 2:48 am (UTC -7)
Best Neil Albums:’Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’, ‘Zuma’, ‘Trans’ NO JOKE.
Passion of the Weiss says:
December 14, 2008 at 11:24 am (UTC -7)
That’s what I’m talking about. I’d throw Harvest and Tonight’s the Night in the discussion. On the Beach is great too.
Neil Cake says:
December 15, 2008 at 8:12 am (UTC -7)
After The Goldrush, Rust Never Sleeps, Mirror Ball and Prairie Wind would also be in contention for me.
It seems to me that really starting to reappraise the 80s now. I still don’t think any of Neil’s 80s albums are all that good, but at least he was trying something different.
Scott T. Sterling says:
December 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm (UTC -7)
Yes!!The “Trans”/”808s & Heartbreak” convo lives on…
Little Danzig says:
December 15, 2008 at 5:01 pm (UTC -7)
I’m not entirely sure if it’s true or not, since it tends to be mentioned anecdotally, but supposedly the reason this album exists is because Young discovered that his autistic son would respond to a vocoder better than his natural speech patterns. It was released during the period where Young had his label in the stranglehold of ‘artistic control’, and the generally accepted legend is that the record was essentially designed for the sole appreciation of his son, who was born with cerebral palsy and had limited response to traditional verbal communication.
The lyrics to “Transformer Man”, especially, seem to reinforce this.
Nate P. says:
December 19, 2008 at 7:14 pm (UTC -7)
Late to this, but if “Sample and Hold” was dropped today by some new kid nobody heard of until Discodust namedropped ‘em, pants’d be gettin shit all over blogtown. That’s my jam right there.
Passion of the Weiss says:
December 19, 2008 at 7:18 pm (UTC -7)
Wholeheartedly agree. By the way, nice Top 25 list in the Fork Today. Your blurbs were great too.
VoiceEncoder says:
February 13, 2012 at 12:03 am (UTC -7)
The vocoder that Mr. Neil Young used on ‘Trans’ was a Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201. Soundwave is a Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus (Mk1 or Mk2?). The Cylon Centurions from ‘Battlestar Galactica’ original-seris was an EMS Vocoder 2000 Mk1.