''Re·ac·tor'' is the eleventh studio album by Canadian

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk music, folk and rock music, rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the American fo ...

musician

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

, and his fourth with American rock band

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by ...

, released on November 2, 1981. It was his last album released through Reprise Records before he moved to Geffen for his next five albums.

Content

Musical style

The album marked Young's first use of the

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early ...

, which would be featured heavily on the subsequent albums ''

Trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (fil ...

'' (1982) and '' Landing on Water'' (1986). The song "Shots" had originally been performed live in 1978 as a ballad. In 2003,

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

of ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' proclaimed that ''Re·ac·tor'' "works up a

punk-blues Punk blues (or blues punk) is a rock music genre that mixes elements of punk rock and blues.Punk Blues Genre AMG Allmusic.com, Retrieved on May 21, 2008 Punk blues musicians and bands usually incorporate elements of related styles, such as pro ...

racket ..that sounds as shaggy and disheveled as anything the Replacements recorded". ''AllMusic'' opined the album to contain "guitar-drenched hard rock made up of thrown-together material". '' Salon.com'' described the album as a

proto-grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements o ...

effort. Peter J. Howe described it retrospectively in 1985 as "gritty

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

Packaging

The album features the

Serenity Prayer The Serenity Prayer is a prayer attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 1943. However, Winnifred Crane Wygal wrote an early version in the Santa Cruz Sentinel of March 15, 1933, as noted in the above cited research ...

on its back cover ("'Deus dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare fortitudinem mutare res quae possum atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere'" – "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"). The original 1981 album gave Neil Young sole writing credit on every track, however the 2021 live release ''Way Down in the Rust Bucket'' added

Frank Sampedro Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (born Manuel Francisco Sampedro de Victoria, February 25, 1949) is an American retired guitarist and member of the rock band Crazy Horse, known mainly for his longtime collaboration with singer-songwriter Neil Young. Sam ...

's name as a co-writer on "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze".

Release

It was unavailable on compact disc until it was released as a

HDCD High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) is a proprietary audio encode-decode process that claims to provide increased dynamic range over that of standard Compact Disc Digital Audio, while retaining backward compatibility with existing compa ...

-encoded remastered version on August 19, 2003, as part of the Neil Young Archives Digital Masterpiece Series.

Reception

William Ruhlmann of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

is largely dismissive of ''Re·ac·tor'' in his retrospective review, awarding the record only two-out-of-five stars, although he praises "Shots" as " a more substantive and threatening song given a riveting performance".

Track listing

All tracks are written by

, except "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze", written by Neil Young and

Personnel

*Neil Young – vocals, guitar, Synclavier, piano, handclaps ;Crazy Horse *

– guitar, synthesizer, vocals, handclaps *

Billy Talbot William Hammond Talbot (born October 23, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of Crazy Horse (band), Crazy Horse. Music career Born in New York City, Talbot started his musical career singing on street c ...

– bass, vocals, handclaps *

Ralph Molina Ralph Molina (born June 22, 1943) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse. Born in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth o ...

– drums, percussion, vocals, handclaps

References

External links

Lyrics
a
HyperRust.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Re ac tor 1981 albums Neil Young albums Albums produced by David Briggs (producer) Reprise Records albums Albums produced by Neil Young Hard rock albums by Canadian artists Crazy Horse (band) albums Punk blues albums Punk rock albums by Canadian artists Punk rock albums by American artists Blues rock albums by American artists Blues rock albums by Canadian artists Krautrock albums