Silver & Gold Neil Young Reprise, 2000 Buy it online Tracks 1: Good To See You 2: Silver & Gold 3: Daddy Went Walkin' 4: Buffalo Springfield Again 5: The Great Divide 6: Horseshoe Man 7: Red Sun 8: Distant Camera 9: Razor Love 10: Without Rings   Reviewed by Claude Lalumière	Rumor has it that Silver & Gold was initially conceived as a true Neil Young solo album, with no backup musicians or singers. Perhaps it would have benefited from such a stripped-down approach. None of its ten songs are very memorable and the addition of backing vocalists and a full folk band only emphasizes their ephemerality. Young's past accomplishments -- which are numerous and awesome -- create expectations that no artist can live up to time after time. Nevertheless, Silver & Gold -- which took about three years to make and clocks in at under 40 minutes -- gives the impression of being a toss-off album into which little or no effort was put. It's probably a wrong impression, but it's an overwhelming one. In the past, Neil Young has often flirted with sentimentality, but has rarely let himself fall completely into its maudlin embrace. Perhaps an occasional song here and there is easily overlooked when surrounded by gems that count among some of best folk and rock 'n' roll songs of the last few decades. Sometimes, as in 1978's campy-yet-sincere "Lotta Love" or 1990's epic grungefest "Love and Only Love"(to pick two excellent songs from Young's vast repertoire), it's that very flirtation that gave his songs some of their tense power. In Silver & Gold, however, there is no such tension or self-awareness. What you hear is what you get. And what you get is a collection of simple songs that fall unashamedly and unquestioningly into sappiness and cheap nostalgia. No clever lyrics. No penetrating images. No entrancing melodies. No thrilling dissonance between tone and content. No moments of searing empathy. Some songs -- "Buffalo Springfield Again" and "Razor Love" come quickly to mind -- are downright embarrassing. It's not only the words themselves that are disappointing but also their delivery. Silver & Gold sounds like a first-time effort by a wet-behind-the-ears singer/songwriter trying to figure out his craft by doing everything the tried-and-true way, afraid of letting any trace of personal voice show in the music. Paradoxically, Neil Young has had such an impact on folk and rock music that doing things the tried-and-true way can now mean sounding like Neil Young himself. A casual listen of the new album will put a Neil Young fan in a comfortable place. The singing, the melodies... Silver & Gold sounds so much like Neil Young. Too much. The harmonica bit in the title track echoes too closely Young's Live Rust performance. The piano intro to "Horseshoe Man" threatens to segue into "After the Goldrush." The guitar picking in "Distant Camera" recalls "Old Man." Young relies overmuch on the evocation of his past glories. The emotional responses some of these new songs might stimulate are due to memories of better songs and not to any intrinsic qualities. Ultimately Silver & Gold isn't really like a Neil Young album at all. It's more like a pitch-perfect but uninspired imitation of one. Silver & Gold? No. More like Simple & Cliché. | May 2000 Claude Lalumière is a Blue Coupe magazine contributing editor, as well as a freelance writer, editor, translator and publishing consultant. He owned and ran danger!, Montreal's chart-topping mid-1990s alternative bookstore. His published criticism can be found on his Web site.	Silver & Gold sounds like a first-time effort by a wet-behind-the-ears singer/songwriter trying to figure out his craft by doing everything the tried-and-true way, afraid of letting any trace of personal voice show in the music. Paradoxi-cally, Neil Young has had such an impact on folk and rock music that doing things the tried-and-true way can now mean sounding like Neil Young himself.