Life

After undertaking several genre experiments with different bands, Neil Young reunited with Crazy Horse for 1987’s Life. Most of the album was recorded live in concert at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on November 18 and 19, 1986. “Mideast Vacation,” “Long Walk Home” and “Around the World” form a mini-suite, in which chunky sonic assaults serve as the musical backdrop for Young’s visions of a war-torn world. (International quarrels weren’t the only conflicts on Young’s mind at the time. Life marks the final stage in his antagonistic tenure at Geffen Records, and “Prisoners of Rock ’n’ Roll” takes aim at the label as the band exorcises its discontent). Along with “Cryin’ Eyes” and “Too Lonely,” “Prisoners” reasserts Crazy Horse’s ability to unleash primal garage rock even in the face of the sanitized production techniques of the ‘80s. “Inca Queen” and “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks” are the kind of rambling, bittersweet ballads in which Crazy Horse specializes, although they are made more alien here by the presence of echoing drums and layers of synth. The album closes with “We Never Danced,” an ethereal slow dance befitting one of David Lynch’s surrealistic dreams.