Neil Young’s ‘Freedom’ Tops 1989’s Albums

Neil Young’s “Freedom” was the most distinguished album of 1989, a work of immense passion and craft that provides an anxious anthem for societies (East and West) that are going through a period of re-examination.

“Rockin’ in the Free World,” the anthem that opens and closes the veteran singer-songwriter’s most gripping collection since his “Tonight’s the Night”/”Zuma” packages in the mid-’70s, contains strains of both optimism and disillusionment.

While celebrating the title rallying cry, the song decries the failure of citizens to live up to their responsibilities. Freedom, Young declares, isn’t just measured by a country’s the form of government, but by the generousity and spirit of people.

In most of the 10 other songs in “Freedom,” Young explores with insight and grace other issues of integrity and commitment, both social and personal.

The only other albums of the past 12 months that rivaled “Freedom” for boldness of vision and consistency of craft were Peter Case’s folk-accented “The Man With the Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar” and Lou Reed’s “New York.”

Case’s album was an especially intimate, somewhat autobiographical tale of searching for values in a doubting age, while “New York” was a forceful, if occasionally heavy-handed indictment of personal and political indifference and greed. They finished second and third respectively on my list of 1989’s 10 best albums.

A notch below these three, in order, are the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Automatic” and N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton,” albums that matched--at times even exceeded the top choices--in the area of boldness, but were less consistent.

The Mary Chain, the London-based rock group, still works wonders with its strikingly arranged tales of romantic obsession, though “Automatic” fails to displace 1985’s “Psychocandy” as the band’s masterpiece. N.W.A’s gangster narratives were year’s most controversial and powerful tracks, but the rest of the album was too thin for it to rate higher than fifth.

Rounding out the Top 10, in order: the Fine Young Cannibals’ “The Raw & the Cooked” (short on substance, but otherwise sensational mix of rock instincts and soul textures); Neneh Cherry’s “Raw Like Sushi” (wonderfully frisky attitude and an underlying thematic bite that is rare in dance pop).

The Pixies’ “Doolittle” (a challenging mixture of frequently comforting, if hyperactive arrangements and troubling themes from the promising Boston rock group); De La Soul’s “3 Feet High and Rising” (the Long Island trio delivers the year’s most varied and inventive rap package), and Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Neither Fish Nor Flesh” (the controversial American ex patriot over-reached in trying to make a contemporary version of “Pet Sounds,” but the highlights offer some of the freshest soul-rock-pop of the year).

The most graphic way to discuss the relative merits of the albums is to assign them points--on the traditional 0 to 100 scoring system. Under that system, “Freedom” deserves 92--which leaves it well below the 95 and above score registered by such key ‘80s albums as Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” U2’s “The Joshua Tree” and Paul Simon’s “Graceland.”

While Case and Reed would also deserve 90 or more on my score card, the remaining five albums would all fall into the 85 to 90 range.

The runners-up, also in the 85 range: Soul II Soul’s “Keep on Movin”’ (some of the most stylish dance floor music of the ‘80s), Thelonious Monster’s “Stormy Weather” (Bob Forrest writes about maturity without tears), the Cure’s “Disintegration” (the British band’s ode to the proposition that bleak can be beautiful).

Also, Paul McCartney’s “Flowers in the Dirt” (surprising gentleness and warmth in this major artistic recovery), Boogie Down Productions’ “Ghetto Music: the Blueprint of Hip Hop” (KRS-One’s socially conscious looks at inner-city problems and challenges are making him the Curtis Mayfield of rap) and Tone Loc’s Loc’ed After Dark” (the liveliest rap party album since the Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to Ill”).