Neil Young – A Letter Home

Sounds like crap, highly regret picking it up today at my local record shop. Should have researched first.

This is four stars out of five at the very least. I'd only dock a star for having the talking bits in the beginning. Otherwise a brilliant, seemingly unappreciated album. Definitely no gimmicks here, this was clearly a well-meaning attempt to keep some memories alive, in this case some of the greatest songs ever written, not in a tiring way, but to them on to the next generation. If that wasn't what this album means then I give up, but I'm almost certain that's basically it. And I for one loved it, I was expecting something half-hearted yet what I heard was searing but in a good way, it was Neil living on in another form, distant yet present. I would give it 5 stars easily but I have been skipping the first track to get straight to the music, easily 5 stars though.

Purchased from Coda , was unaware of the box set

I posted a few months back about buying this LP on Record Store Day and finding a John Mayer LP inside. My records were in storage for a few years so I didn't get a chance to open this for two years to find John Mayer inside. I ed Third Man and they made no attempt whatsoever to make this right. Beware of Third Man they have gotten too big to take care of their customers. Very disappointing

I just opened mine 2 years later and found a John Mayer LP inside. Not funny Mr. White.

Does anyone know how many boxsets have been made ?

It looks like I got a misprinted copy. The label for side B is printed on both sides. Anyone else have this on their copy?

Does anyone know if there are difference between the ones sold by TRM on-line store and the ones available for retailers?

Neil Young has never been the artist you think he is, forever proving that he, rather than David Bowie, is the true musical chameleon. I’ll be the first to it to scratching my head when it comes to Mr. Young more times than not ... though in reality, it’s not important to Neil Young whether I get what he’s doing, or even that you get what he’s doing, because long story short, he doesn’t care. There are only two things that seem to interest this brilliant artist, the first being his headlong collision with the music industry’s take on quality sound, and he being able to paint his musical visions.

Yes, there are those who are going to claim having an epiphany while listening to A Letter Home, a collection of covers that sounds older than time itself, as if recently unearthed from an interrupted postal delivery that laid unnoticed behind a wall for 75 years, and having absolutely nothing in common with his sensational 2012 Psychedelic Pill. In many aspects this album is a letter home, one where he talks to his long gone parents, and seems to have a childlike reverence for Jack White’s refurbished Voice-O-Graph recording booth, which was developed back in 1947, giving Young the advantage of being here and there, and now and then, all at the same time ... and believe me, he takes full advantage of it, paring everything down to the essentials: a simple acoustic guitar, a harmonica on which he delivers notes like he's never played one before, and cherished well appointed songs that he’s lived with for his whole life.

Yes, A Letter Home is an affect, a gimmick, it’s Neil Young having a bit of fun ... and, if you purchase this album, you’ll soon find that Neil is have a bit of fun at your expense. There’s nothing I can say to praise this album, and there is nothing I can say to shoot it down either. Of course it’s not Harvest Moon, and it’s certainly not a lousy live recording either. It’s just what it is, Neil Young in a confined space doing what I did on the boardwalk of Atlantic City back in the late 50’s, where I paid my dollar, stood in a booth, sang my heart out, never knowing that everyone outside could hear me, walked home with my very own record ... and was devastated when it warped beyond belief, baking in the sun under the back window of our huge yellow Pontiac.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Third Man debuted its Record Booth, a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine
that records up to 2 minutes of audio and dispenses a one-oF-a-kind 6"
phonograph disc to the . Whether it be a song, a message to a lover, an
audio postcard, or just curiosity in a process that has mystified so many
folks for ages, the ability to "hear yourself as others hear you" is not
only a tagline here... it's an invitation, a charge, a call to arms.