“Lost” albums have usually been mislaid for good reason; they simply aren’t up to scratch (Springsteen’s electrified Nebraska) or have collapsed under their own pretensions (Pink Floyd’s Household Objects). Scrapped on the eve of its 1975 release, Homegrown has long held a fabled place in the swollen volumes of Neil Young folklore, the missing link to turn his mid-70s “doom trilogy” (Time Fades Away, On the Beach, Tonight’s the Night) into a quartet.
Homegrown turns out to be a lesser creation than the latter two albums. It shares their unpolished production and lyrical desolation – Young and actor Carrie Snodgress had just broken up, a year after their son was born – but lacks their cohesion and wider disillusion with the hippie dream. Moreover, some of its best songs – Star of Bethlehem, Little Wing – have already seen release on other records. Of the seven unheard cuts, four are short, acoustic love calls. Separate Ways and Try are wounded but tender breakup songs, Kansas a gentle reflection on a one-night stand. An unremarkable band blues and an unlistenable finger-on-wineglass affair contribute little to an album that’s well-found but, like much of Young’s recent output, for the committed.
