The album Neil Young thought was ruined by production: “Lot of problems”
Great production is undeniably pivotal when it comes to the potential success of an album. Sure, the songs come before anything else, but the real magic behind any record succeeding is having those little bits of ear candy sprinkled throughout the mix that keep everyone on their toes. Neil Young didn’t necessarily care about everything sounding perfect, though, and while that works in some cases, it felt like a step down listening to Trans.
Then again, was anyone going to be the guy who told Neil Young what to do? From day one, the rustic rocker did whatever the hell he wanted, so it wasn’t out of the question for him to make a record just because he woke up on the right side of the bed and felt that his calling was to make a country record.
On the other hand, Trans is probably the last genre that many would think Young is capable of taking on. Half of his greatest records revolve around him making Americana-style music by way of a Canadian, and hearing him go from something so warm sonically to the cold sounds of synths is almost funny in how stark it is.
Just imagine a fair-weather fan of Young going into the record store and picking up this album. They may have known tunes like ‘Powderfinger’ and could maybe sing the chorus of ‘Heart of Gold’ by heart when it came on the radio, yet the next album that they see on the rack has strange vocoder vocals and a sleek sound that would make Gary Numan blush.
For all of its confusing moments, Young’s heart was in the right place for the record. Since he wanted to experiment, a lot of the repetitive moments on the record actually come from exercises that he would do with his son struggling with cerebral palsy, which is actually one of the more heartbreaking things that he has ever done.
Still, even Young had to admit that pieces of the album were ruined the minute it was mastered, saying, “Well, let’s say I don’t underrate Trans. I really like it, and think if anything is wrong, then it’s down to the mixing. We had a lot of technical problems on that record, but the content of the record is great.”
Even though this album was the start of a creative lull for Young during the 1980s, many of his records would have far worse production than this. Just listen to how brick-walled CSNY’s American Dream is to see what a truly overproduced Neil Young song sounds like, especially when the harmonies come in and sound like they are screaming into the listener’s ears every time they come on.
Even with the shoddy production, Trans is an important album for Young that showed the compassion behind his rough exterior. We had heard him bleed on record on Tonight’s the Night, but it’s nice to hear his songs coming from a genuine place of love rather than the musical middle finger that he dished out on Everybody’s Rockin’.
