New Neil Young Album: Chrome Dreams II
The music press release I have from Warner Music Australia (thanks to my pal Lauren over at Oz Music Scene) reports Young saying that his new album Chrome Dreams II has, “A form based on some of my original recordings, with a large variety of songs, rather than one specific type of song.”
Hmmm. Young usually does a fair variety of songs, not simply one kind, so where he was going with that statement is anyone’s guess.
I’m not all that surprised by wacky Young comments though; I adore his music but have you seen his official website. It’s seriously insane — and I see a lot of very weird stuff due to one of my other blogs Offbeat Homes. I trip out every time I visit the Young website and usually get lost and have to leave.
Other PR info about the actual recording: “On the sessions for the album, Neil Young was joined by Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina, pedal steel guitarist and dobro player Ben Keith (Harvest, Comes A Time, Harvest Moon) and bassist Rick Rosas (Freedom, Living With War, This Note’s For You). Most of the recording was done at Feelgood’s Garage studio near Redwood City, California, with two vintage gas pumps out front and vintage studio gear inside.”
It sounds very cool. The album has 10 tunes; 7 fresh and 3 that are previously written years ago but as of yet unreleased. One of the songs runs a full 18 minutes! The album is set to launch on October 16th and Young is supporting the release with a six week tour in October and November but if you just can’t wait, it’s anticipated that he’ll be playing some of the new songs at Farm Aid on September 9th.
You should also check out the crazy fake New York Times newspaper clippings on Young’s site about the new album — good stuff.
Tags: ben_keith, chrome_dreams, hippie-sounds, Neil Young, newspaper_clippings, new_album, new_york_times, new_york_times_newspaper, october_16th, oz_music, redwood_city_california, steel_guitarist, vintage_gas_pumps, warner_music_australiaRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Album Releases, Concerts, Neil Young
3 opinions for New Neil Young Album: Chrome Dreams II
Gianmarc
Sep 7, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I actually found his explanation of the album to be perfectly reasonable. He has chosen in recent years to record an album that is either all breezy folk (Prairie Wind, Harvest Moon, Silver & Gold) or all guts & glory (Mirror Ball, Ragged Glory, Living With War). Other albums that do not easily fit into one of those two dimensions nonetheless tend to be geared toward a single type of sound–the R & B of “Are You Passionate”, the concept-album “Greendale”, etc. Back in the day he’d cut a snotty rock tune alongside a sentimental folk ditty–for every folk gem on Harvest there is “Lines” or “Alabama.” I’d love for him to return to that kind of ecclectic approach to recording, and it seems that’s exactly what he’s doing with this album. I fail to see the “wackiness” of the remark. Sorry.
Jennifer
Sep 8, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I didn’t mean wacky to be offensive I love Neil Young’s music — I just find some of his words a little off along with his website but in a charming way. I agree that his eclectic approach is great; far better than most of the white bread dullness out there today.
Actually though this reminds me did you know you’ll be able to watch him on Farm Aid? (unless you’ll be there than you’re lucky). I need to post that because that should be pretty cool if he does some new tunes.
Thanks for stopping by.
MOTU
Sep 30, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Chrome Dreams II - Review by MOTU http://www.motu.net
Neil Young’s latest effort shows a mature artist getting older and drawing upon past creative styles for expression. The album contains ten (10) new Neil Young songs and runs just a little over sixty-six minutes. The songs cover a variety of styles that Young has been comfortable with ranging from acoustic Harvest Moon type to harder Crazy Horse type material. Like most of Neil Young’s recent works, I found that I had to listen to it at least twice to digest it and form any opinion of it.
The CD opens with Beautiful Bluebird which is an effective acoustic type song that has a striking slide resonator guitar lead throughout giving it a blues dimension. However, the song remains vintage Young and is a good attention catching opening to the CD. The second song; Boxcar; follows this acoustic Harvest Moon type style that is set in the first song with a banjo providing the key background instrument. That is where the mood of this CD ends because the third song; Ordinary People; bursts the acoustic mood with a rock sound more like Crazy Horse. You also get the sense that Young may be looking to break some kind of rock song record as Ordinary People runs well over 18 minutes! Time aside, the song flows well and like a good movie seems to be far shorter than it really is. The fourth song; Shining Light; then gives the listener a retro fifties type feel only to be followed by another Crazy Horse style rock song; Spirit Road.
In general, I didn’t find Chrome Dreams II cohesive as a total work. On a first listen, it does not knock your socks off the way some of Young’s past classic albums succeeded in doing on the first play. However, there are some real great individual songs here if you are willing to give it a chance. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best), I give it a 7.
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