There is a lot said about Neil Young's 1982 experimental album Trans, some good, some bad. I can imagine his fans taking the record home one sunny day in 1982 putting it on and thinking "what the fuck is this?". The electronic theme of the album is carried through with synthesizers and vocoder affected vocals in a majority of the tracks. Listening to it now it does sound rather dated but there is magic there that shines through. One of the things I admire the most about NY is his desire to try new things and experiment and this is one of his most famous experiments. The pretty standard opener Little thing called love lulls you into a soft rock sense of security before the synth heavy track computer age brings you up to date and the feminine sounding vocoder vocals take you straight back to the eighties. The vocoder heavy track transformer man and the classic sample and hold are fantastic. I read once on a classic rock blog about someones hatred for the electronic version of Mr Soul included on the album. I don't know what he's talking about for me it's the definitive version.
Although the most eighties thing about Trans is probably the album cover.
"Little Thing Called Love" – 3:13
"Computer Age" – 5:24
"We R in Control" – 3:31
"Transformer Man" – 3:23
"Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)" – 4:13
"Hold On to Your Love" – 3:28
"Sample and Hold" * – 8:03
"Mr. Soul" – 3:19
"Like an Inca" * – 9:46
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