Re-ac-tor is the eleventh studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Canadian musician Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, and his third with Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (band)

Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young. It has been co-credited on a number of albums throughout Young's career and has released five albums of its own.-Early years:...

, released in 1981. The album married the electric guitar crunch of the late '70s Crazy Horse sound with early '80s new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 rhythms. The simplistic, overdriven sound of the songs can be seen as a continuation of the punk-influenced numbers of Rust Never Sleeps

Rust Never Sleeps

Rust Never Sleeps is an album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse released in 1979. The bulk of the album was recorded live at San Francisco's Cow Palace, with overdubs added. Audience noise is removed as much as possible, although it is clearly audible at certain points, most noticeably on the opening...

such as "Sedan Delivery".

Critical reception to the album was generally poor except for the accolades accorded to the album closer "Shots". The album marked the first use by Young of the Synclavier

Synclavier

The Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...

 which would be featured heavily on several of his later albums: Trans

Trans (album)

Trans is the twelfth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 1982. Recorded partially and released during his notorious Geffen era in the 1980s, Trans baffled many Neil Young fans. Some suggested that the album could be a satirical message that Young was trying to send about the...

(1982) and Landing on Water

Landing on Water

Landing on Water is the fifthteenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released on July 28, 1986 .-History:Several of the songs on the album were resurrected from Neil Young and Crazy Horse's failed 1984 sessions - a set of sessions where, according to longtime producer David Briggs, the...

(1986).

The album features the Serenity Prayer

Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. The prayer has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs.The best-known form is:...

, from the Twelve Steps programme, on its back cover ("'Deus dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare fortitudinem mutare res quae possum atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere'" – "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference").

It was unavailable on compact disc until it was released as a HDCD

High Definition Compatible Digital

High Definition Compatible Digital, or HDCD is a patented encode-decode process, now owned by Microsoft, that improves the audio quality of standard Redbook audio CDs, while retaining backward compatibility with existing Compact disc players....

-encoded remastered version on August 19, 2003 as part of the Neil Young Archives Digital Masterpiece Series

Neil Young Archives

The Neil Young Archives is a series of archival releases by singer-songwriter Neil Young which feature previously released as well as unreleased studio and live recordings. The project has been long in the making – work began in the late 1980s...

.

Side one

1. "Opera Star" – 3:31
2. "Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze" – 4:15
3. "T-Bone" – 9:10
4. "Get Back on It" – 2:14

Side two

1. "Southern Pacific" – 4:07
2. "Motor City" – 3:11
3. "Rapid Transit" – 4:35
4. "Shots" – 7:42

Personnel

• Neil Young
  Neil Young
  Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
  
   – guitar, piano, vocals
• Frank Sampedro
  Frank Sampedro
  Frank "Poncho" Sampedro is an American guitarist and member of the rock and roll band Crazy Horse, known mainly for its longtime collaboration with singer-songwriter Neil Young....
  
   – guitar, stringman, vocals
• Billy Talbot
  Billy Talbot
  Billy Talbot is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of Crazy Horse.-Music career:Born in New York City, Talbot started his musical career singing on street corners at the age of 14. He moved to New Jersey with his family the next year, and by 17 he had moved to...
  
   – bass, vocals
• Ralph Molina
  Ralph Molina
  Ralph Molina is an American musician, best known as the drummer for Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse.Born in Puerto Rico, Molina has been a member of Crazy Horse since they were formed in 1962 as Danny & the Memories. He has remained throughout the band's many personnel changes, and has...
  
  – drums, percussion, vocals

External links

• Lyrics at HyperRust.org