Life

The Life album was released in July 1987. It was produced by Neil Young and David Briggs. The album cover shows two hands holding bars, which represents Neil Young behind bars. This symbolize his bad terms with the record company Geffen that had gone on for many years and Life was the last album before Young got free from his contract.

Life cover

Songs

1. Mideast Vacation
2. Long Walk Home
3. Around the World
4. Inca Queen
5. Too Lonely
6. Prisoners of Rock 'N' Roll
7. Cryin' Eyes
8. When Your Lonely Heart Breaks
9. We Never Danced

The destructive situation with Geffen is reflected in “Prisoners of Rock 'N' Roll”:

People tell us that we play to loud
But they don't know what our music's about
We never listen to the record company man
They try to change us and ruin our band.

That's why we don't wanna be good
That's why we don't wanna be good
We're prisoners of rock and roll.

The faulty conditions around Geffen would probably not woke up the most inspiring mood in Young and neither is Life one of his best albums. At this time Neil Young’s music career was at its lowest point. Some of the concert on the tour that he made together with Crazy Horse was canceled because of insufficient tickets being sold.

The electronic effects from Landing on Water remains, but is in general sparser on Life. That doesn’t stop songs like “Around the World” and “Too Lonely” from being almost painful listening to due to their excesses in production.

Yet, there are great moments on this album. “Long Walk Home” for example, although its impression are perhaps somewhat damaged by the flamboyancy in arrangement and the lyric's patriotic statements. Somewhat repetitious, but interesting in parts is the eight-minute long “Inca Queen”. “When Your Lonely Heart Breaks” is also worth mentioning.

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