This was the album the prolific Neil Young released right after his first flirtation with CSN&Y, and once again he shows just how wide and deep his musical talents are. All we aging sixties kids all have a copy of both this album and his "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" album; it is standard issue for older babyboomers. Indeed, out of the welter of so many artists with so much in the way of incredible and unforgettable music, Neil Young stands alone as a sixties icon, someone who has consistently done the music his way, and with great sincerity, consistent authenticity, and a singular verve. No one has produced the range and quantity of memorable songs and melodies, as has Mr. Young, who has always produced what he wanted on his terms, and has never sold out to commercialism or tried to appeal to the mainstream audience.
Here we have so many terrific songs like "Tell Me Why", "After The Goldrush", and his smash hit, "Southern Man", that it is hard to remember that this is just one of several such albums he released in short order over a three or four year period. IN a number of other songs, such as "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", which Linda Ronstadt later did a great cover of, Neil's genius and guitar virtuosity shines, as it does in songs like "Don't Let It Bring You Down", "Birds", "I Believe In You", and a personal favorite of mine, "When You Dance". Young may well be an iconoclast, someone who is unpredictable, unreliable from a business sense, and something of a prima donna, but he always plays straight from the heart (and groin), and one knows that the guy playing that axe so masterfully is absolutely in control of the incredible sounds emanating from it. Wow! Put this baby in the CD player and listen as the CD illustrates why Neil Young will never die! Long may his chrome heart shine!

1. Tell Me Why
2. After the Gold Rush
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
4. Southern Man
5. Till the Morning Comes
6. Oh, Lonesome Me - Neil Young, Gibson, Don
7. Don't Let It Bring You Down
8. Birds
9. When You Dance You Can Really Love
10. I Believe in You
11. Cripple Creek Ferry

SPOILER!

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007 EAC extraction logfile from 26. February 2009, 7:59 Neil Young / After The Gold Rush (2009 SHM CD) Used drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG Adapter: 0 ID: 2 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface Used output format : Internal WAV Routines Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 2:59.00 | 0 | 13424 2 | 2:59.00 | 3:46.08 | 13425 | 30382 3 | 6:45.08 | 3:08.22 | 30383 | 44504 4 | 9:53.30 | 5:32.10 | 44505 | 69414 5 | 15:25.40 | 1:20.38 | 69415 | 75452 6 | 16:46.03 | 3:50.22 | 75453 | 92724 7 | 20:36.25 | 2:57.50 | 92725 | 106049 8 | 23:34.00 | 2:33.33 | 106050 | 117557 9 | 26:07.33 | 4:05.30 | 117558 | 135962 10 | 30:12.63 | 3:27.45 | 135963 | 151532 11 | 33:40.33 | 1:34.45 | 151533 | 158627 Range status and errors Selected range Filename L:\Music\Neil Young - After The Gold Rush\Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (2009 SHM CD).wav Peak level 100.0 % Range quality 100.0 % Test CRC 2612DAB3 Copy CRC 2612DAB3 Copy OK No errors occurred End of status report

The mirror like finish is outstanding on these cd's.
I don't know if the sound is better then other remastered Japan cd, but the sound is very nice on these.
And I don't care what is said at SH forum about SHM discs, if they haven't listened to a SHM CD before.