Zuma: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Remember How to Enjoy Themselves

Neil Young & Crazy Horse close out 1975 with Zuma, nine tracks and 36 minutes that mark a hard turn away from the dark run of albums that came before it. In its place: loud guitars, a rebuilt Crazy Horse, and songs that sound like a band remembering how to enjoy itself.

The Running Order

Side One: Loud, Then Quiet

Don’t Cry No Tears kicks the record open fast and mean, a short, quick opening that announces this is a rock album again. Danger Bird follows and grows darker, nearly seven minutes of guitar that opens out and stings. Pardon My Heart drops the volume entirely, a soft, gentle turn that gives Young room to sound tender instead of harsh. The record then moves through Lookin’ for a Love before landing on Barstool Blues, a clear high point that closes out the first half.

Side Two: Stupid Girl to Cortez the Killer

Stupid Girl opens the second half pleasant enough, though it is not where the record’s case is made. Drive Back keeps the energy up but plays more like a bridge than a place the record is trying to reach. Then comes Cortez the Killer, seven and a half minutes long and the true heart of the record, a long, building guitar piece that holds up longer than anything around it. Through My Sails closes the album on a soft, quiet note, a calm ending after all the noise.

Barstool Blues itself is worth returning to. It is a loose, tired rocker that sounds like it was cut in one take and left that way on purpose.

What the Critics Heard

One critic called it “as pretty as the best of After the Gold Rush, yet very rough,” and that mix of the two is the whole record in one line. Another judgment went further, calling Zuma “a minor masterpiece.” Far Out Magazine placed the album among the finest work in Young’s long history as a musician, an extensive body of songs built up over many years. The tracks that keep getting singled out are the same ones that hold the album together: Cortez the Killer, Danger Bird, Don’t Cry No Tears, Pardon My Heart, Barstool Blues.

as pretty as the best of After the Gold Rush, yet very rough

The Verdict

Zuma is not as tight as the albums that came before it. A couple of tracks in the middle lose steam. But the peaks here are as high as anything in Young’s body of work, and the harsh edge is the point, not a weak spot to forgive. Cortez the Killer alone would justify the album’s standing. Set beside Danger Bird and Barstool Blues, it makes Zuma one of the strongest records Young made with Crazy Horse.

This is a comeback record that does not sound like it is trying to prove anything, which is exactly why it works.

1975 · album review · Cortez the Killer · Crazy Horse · Neil Young · Zuma