After a brief stint of insanity (Living With War) Neil Young has just released one of the best albums in quite awhile. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Prairie Wind. It's a beautiful album and has a few really nice songs on it. The slower ballads really get the job done, but the faster songs fall short. The overall sound of the album just seems worn out to me, which is certainly understandable given Neil's condition at the time.
Living With War was a whole other animal entirely. Although the vitality of it was invigorating and the quick internet release was exciting the songs sounded very much like they were written and recorded in a week. As bad as the songs were, the production was even worse. I don't blame Neil for the record. He wrote a record about something he was passionate about and put it out there. It just wasn't very good.
When I heard about Chrome Dreams II coming out I was excited but skeptical. Soon after hearing about the record, I discovered Neil was coming to the Fox Theater in St. Louis. That is a great venue, so I bought tickets and found out I would receive a free copy of Neil's new record with the purchase. I got the record a few days after the release date and put the disc in on the way to campus. I was stunned by the quality immeadiately. Aside from the "Dirty Old Man", the record blew me away. "Beautiful Bluebird" starts the record off with Neil continuing to master the slow ballad. The rest of the album experiments with Crazy Horseesque tracks such as "Spirit Road" as well as the awesome scrapped 80's song, "Ordinary People". The album is really good. I can't wait to see Neil this Sunday night.
