As
Neil Young's second double live album of the '90s,
Year of the Horse could seem a little redundant. After all,
Weld was useful since it appeared ten years after the release of Live Rust, Young & Crazy Horse's first double live album, and it captured them at their peak.
Year of the Horse, however, appeared merely five years after
Weld, and in between those two records,
Young had only released two albums' worth of material that suited these high-voltage, improvised performances. These factors didn't matter since
Young decided to allow
Jim Jarmusch to make a film documentary about his 1996 tour, and
Year of the Horse is the album that was released to coincide with the movie. (It's not really a soundtrack, since these performances don't appear in the film.) Many of the songs here haven't made
Young's previous live albums, and there are enough strong moments to make
Year of the Horse worthwhile for die-hard fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine