A timeless album, not in the cliched "you must buy this timeless classic" sense, but timeless in that it sounds like it could have been released any time in the last fifty years. This is mostly one of Neil's more acoustic albums from what I think of as his golden period around the time of the 60s moving into the 70s.
Tell Me Why opens with clockwork strumming, gorgeous harmonies that instantly evoke the 70s for me, even if I was a little baby for most of it. After The Gold Rush has Neil's vocals right up front over piano and is a perfect second song. This theme of perfect seguing continues throughout, each song sounds like the perfect next course, right up to the whimsical sounding closer Cripple Creek Ferry.
Southern Man, which stands apart on the album as more of a Crazy Horse style full blown band stomp, was written as a response to the civil rights movement and subsequently taken as a bit of an insult by Lynyrd Skynyrd who replied with Sweet Home Alabama.
I love everything about this album - the sequencing of the songs is perfect, the cover is enigmatic, it sounds like a complete and well crafted whole, everything. It's not as jaw droppingly innovative as his other classics of this period, nor does it have the incredible overwhelming sound, but it is a perfect piece.
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