Neil Young
Dead Man Soundtrack (Jim Jarmusch) Vinyl 2LP

Psychedelic Western with a ghostly soundtrack to match. Long-awaited remastered repress of the soundtrack to the 1995 Jim Jarmusch acid-Western film of the same name. Original copies of the vinyl release fetch upwards of $200 on the second hand market, and for good reason. Even within the unpredictable Neil Young discography (peep his electro-outing Trans for a hint), this album easily qualifies as one of his more "out-there" efforts. Neil recorded the soundtrack while improvising (mostly with electric guitar, but also using some acoustic guitar, piano, and organ) alone in his studio over an edit of the film he was provided. The result is a hauntingly beautiful work, one that evokes the hostile, desolate landscapes of the film's Old West. That said, the album works on its own terms as ambient mood music for those unwilling to delve into the ether that is new-age music. The album consists of 7 instrumental tracks by Neil, with dialog excepts from the film and Johnny Depp reading the poetry of William Blake interespersed between the music. Remastered double LP with liner notes by Jim Jarmusch himself, released on Vapor Records.

• remastered sound
• printed inner sleeves
• liner notes by Jim Jarmusch
• music label: Vapor Records 2019

reviewed by Ralphy Corduroy 02/2019