Why it’s strange: In theory, since Le Noise is a solo acoustic Neil Young album, it's about as expected as a Neil Young album can be. Too bad standard conceptions of theory and practice don't apply in Youngland. Produced by Daniel Lanois, Le Noise finds Young's guitar treated with all sorts of spooky electric effects, sounding almost black-metal distorted at times, and his voice is frequently doused with creepily inhuman echo.

Strangest song: "Hitchhiker." In which Neil smokes hash through a pen, tries amphetamines (which make his head get caught the speedometer wires of his '48 Buick), pops some valium to cope with fame anxiety, switches to Valium, smokes grass, snorts coke (then his head explodes), and starts to think that maybe he's an Aztec architect. Or perhaps an Inca.

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