Trans (1982)

"We R in Control" If it weren't for Arc this would probably have to count as the weirdest Neil Young album ever. His first for Geffen, it marks an auspicious kick-start to a relationship that eventually soured to the point where the label filed suit against him, claiming he was willfully creating "unrepresentative Neil Young albums." Interesting theory. Back on Earth, I count this among my favorite Neil Young albums—if not on the short list of his sizeable catalog, certainly in the top 10. He's no electronics wiz, let alone proto-techno artist in any sense of the term, as has been pointed out ad infinitum elsewhere—even such basics as fancy beats are missing in action here. In fact, I think I hear a drumkit. The exotics of it really boil down to just vocoders and keyboards. And, oh yeah, it's a bunch of Neil Young songs too, which is something, writing songs, that he's always been pretty well known for. Now that we are decades beyond the mentality that overshadowed this at the time ("disco sucks and so does new wave, probably"), much of the daringness of it is lost as are the various transgressions against Neil Young fan dogma, which I just like to think means we can make the appropriate assessments now. Or try looking at is this way: if you are a Neil Young rockist and dislike the folkie exercises, or vice versa, there's probably no point checking into this one. You probably never have. If, on the other hand, you like both the rock stuff and the folkie stuff, then you probably already know this is pretty good.