Neil Young: Music made of granite

It's been many years since rock music was still important and extremely relevant. Artists were not pop bunnies who sang with computer voices, but stars with guitars, poets, explainers of the world.

Without electricity but equipped with a high degree of sensitivity, an upright rock veteran proved 30 years ago with this record that "unplugged" can still be a seal of quality today. The selection of songs alone, including newly arranged classics such as "The Needle And The Damage Done", "Helpless" and "Like A Hurricane", make the concert recording a feast not only for fans.

If you imagine today, when Neil Young is almost 80 years old, how old the great old man seemed to you back then, you are shocked by your own age. And by how young his music still sounds.

The high musical level at which the gifted songwriter Young and his fellow musicians (including guitarist Nils Lofgren and drummer Oscar Butterworth) move for 14 songs gives this recording its unique character. Songs that time cannot harm because they are timeless. There are also songs that the unplugged band interprets with restrained skill and great care. Here a delicate piano note, there an almost hidden bass note, then again the sensitive acoustic band as a whole.

Of course, and not a little bit: Neil as a soloist, so just voice, guitar and harmonica. You have to be a fan for that, because the result sounds rather brittle. Despite everything, "Unplugged" is a record of almost unconquerable charm and a timelessness made of granite.