Artist: Young, Neil
Label: Reprise Records
Release: 2007
Neil Young is one of those artists who definitely belongs in the “old farts” category, but his “farts” are anything but stinky and definitely not all that innocent. On his recent studio records he did try his hand at concept albums built on good ideas, but the execution itself often limped.
Chrome Dreams II makes you think there must be a Chrome Dreams (I) out there too. A record with that title was supposed to exist and was supposed to come out in the late seventies, but it never happened. Instead, Neil later released a bunch of those songs in one form or another on other albums – like Like A Hurricane, Powderfinger, Pocahontas, Look Out For My Love and others…
Chrome Dreams II is similarly a collection of older tracks that Neil couldn’t, didn’t know how to, or didn’t want to fit onto any of the many records of the past decade, but it also has a few fresh things on it. The centerpiece is the whopping 18-minute Ordinary People, a typical Young storytelling-instrumental masterpiece, around which winds a varied musical collage of country, rock, pop, dirty, charging guitar rock, mysticism and oddness – like the use of a children’s choir (The Way) or the sneakily gallows-humored Dirty Old Man.
Sure, we can wish that Chrome Dreams II were seen as a fresh studio record from a seasoned veteran, but it’s still more a collection of unused, certainly authentic, interesting and probably timeless (that’s hard to claim for now) material that the prolific songwriter forgot about or simply left sitting in some creative “junk shop”.
Lineup
Neil Young – vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano, Hammond B-3 organ, percussion
Ben Keith – “pedal steel” guitar, “lap slide” guitar, dobro, electric guitar, Hammond B-3 organ, backing vocals
Rick Rosas – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ralph Molina – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
Neil Young & Niko Bolas
Track list
1. Beautiful Bluebird
2. Boxcar
3. Ordinary People
4. Shining Light
5. Believer
6. Spirit Road
7. Dirty Old Man
8. Ever After
9. No Hidden Path
10. Way
Album length: 65.43
