Neil Young (Remastered)

Neil Young’s first solo album following his exit from Buffalo Springfield had him continuing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche, who put the magic touch on “Expecting to Fly.” The opening instrumental “The Emperor of Wyoming” wasn’t much of a departure from Buffalo Springfield’s implementation of country and western, but Nitzsche’s penchant for string saturation can be heard immediately on the following “The Loner,” where the lush, sweeping accompaniments rub against the gritty grain of Young’s distorted guitar fuzz. Both Young and Nitzsche exercised some restraint on “The Old Laughing Lady,” a tastefully orchestral folk-rock tune where the more ornate arrangements are peripheral before a swell of backing gospel singers take over the song’s bridge. At just over a minute long, “String Quartet from Whiskey Boot Hill” gives Nitzsche free rein to set the tone for the romantic and pastoral “Here We Are In the Years.” The album’s standout “I’ve Loved Her So Long” best recalls “Expecting to Fly” in pace, structure and tone, though the nearly ten-minute-long “The Last Trip to Tulsa” proves to be the album’s epic.