Following this year’s strangely mesmerising, yet decidedly oddball, pseudo-live album ‘Earth’, Neil Young has dispensed with backing band Promise of the Real to produce ‘Peace Trail’, a predominantly acoustic solo offering that was recorded in just four days.
Backed by bassist Paul Bushnell and drummer Jim Keltner, the LP finds his cantankerous canon aimed at the evils of modernity, social injustice, negligent journalism and everything that rankles as, once again, polemical outpourings take precedence over classic songcraft.
Few artists are as submissive to their muse as the grizzled Canadian troubadour. This century, his inspiration – particularly on ‘The Monsanto Years’ – has stemmed from the perception that the world is being butchered by individuals and corporations who are too rich, powerful and ignorant to care, or be held accountable, for their actions.
Enter Young, guitar toting eco-warrior, hell bent on saving the planet and standing up for the little guy. On his recent 71st birthday the songwriter performed at Standing Rock, lending his support to those protesting the planned Dakota Access Pipeline. The scathing, somewhat jazzy, Indian Givers references their plight, with the line “I wish somebody would share the news” repeated to highlight his frustration with society turning a blind eye.
Elsewhere, Terrorist Suicide Hang Gliders is a wry account of xenophobia, while John Oakes finds a good egg - who seems too decent to be real – accidentally shot while trying to help his workers. It’s an engaging, folky lament but, like much of this record, too heavy handed and black and white. Young is very passionate but prefers to crack an egg with a sledgehammer. Here he points fingers and condemns rather than analysing any complexities beyond his own forceful opinions.
That lack of thought is a consistent problem. By recording the album quickly there’s certainly a raw immediacy, but songs like the narratively confused Texas Ranger are just plain poor, while there’s also a feeling he’s often covering the same old lyrical ground. Other tracks, meanwhile, have the air of undercooked demos, boasting some nice, restrained instrumental work – stinging harmonica, some fuzzy distorted six-string and sorrowful auto-tune - and promising ideas that need to be refined to sharpen their point of view and add a little musical magic.
My New Robot is a case in point, with its idyllic ode to peaceful life punctured by Amazon delivering the titular device. The track culminates with a messy, quasi-futuristic dirge, featuring electronic vocals asking for his password and mother’s maiden name in a way that harkens back to his controversial ‘82 effort ‘Trans’. It’s mad, intriguing, but ultimately cobbled together. Its point is lost to weirdness.
The most clearly articulated, and best, songs here actually focus inwards. The serene title track is closest to vintage Young, with its acoustic picking, twanging guitar and dreamy organ sounding like a 1970s western. Framed by the claim no one is looking down on us, Young vows to keep fighting as something new – possibly inside him or an external threat – is growing. Can’t Stop Working is a revealing and delicate insight into how he needs to create and express himself to keep his soul nourished. Which does explain a few things.
This patchy effort is no match for Young's finest work and suggests that blindly following his lyrical muse is suffocating his musical spark. Would it kill him to write a great melody or harmony? Regardless of quality control being AWOL, though, ‘Peace Trail’ still offers a captivating and frustrating mixture of the good, bad and the ugly that’s liable to inspire heated debates among his fans. You get the feeling he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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