Forever Neil Young

Happy Birthday Neil!

EP Review: Neil Young and the Restless - Eldorado

The only music released under the Neil Young and the Restless banner is now available as a stand-alone EP in the United States.

Issued ahead of Freedom in only Japan and Australia in 1989, Eldorado features three tracks - the title cut, “Don’t Cry” and “On Broadway” - that wound up on the aforementioned solo LP, plus the previously unavailable-in-America “Cocaine Eyes” and “Heavy Love.”

With support from bassist Rick Rosas and drummer Chad Cromwell with a cameo from Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro on the title track, Eldorado will be familiar to many fans, as Freedom was a popular album in an otherwise-fallow decade for Young.

The “new” cuts, too, compare favorably to much of Young’s 1980s output. But taken against his entire catalog, they’re essentially unoriginal garage rockers Young has recorded in different iterations before and since.

The result is an EP for completists only. Everybody else has - or needs to get - Freedom, which toggles between thrashers such as these and “Rockin’ in the Free World” and acoustic balladry including “Hangin’ on a Limb” and “The Ways of Love,” both of which feature Linda Ronstadt.

Grade card: Neil Young and the Restless - Eldorado - B