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As you might have noticed, the US is bitterly politically divided these days. So it’s hardly surprising that Talkin To The Trees, Neil Young’s forty-fourth studio album has a thing or two to say about that. While no one has ever looked to Young for cogent political analysis, there’s no denying that he’s capable of writing gloriously blunt and bracing protest songs when he’s properly fired up.
Big Change and Let’s Roll Again are the new record’s snarling highlights, a one-two knockout punch of sarcasm-drenched yet entirely sincere bile in which Young cranks up his guitar and takes direct aim at Trump and his lackey Elon Musk. Big Change boils down to Young declaring: ‘Big change is comin’!’ over three descending distorted chords, but that’s all he needs to summon up the horror of the Trump Reich apocalypse.
Rabble-rousing thrasher Let’s Roll Again demands in no uncertain terms that Ford, Chrysler and General Motors should build more eco-friendly electric cars, while calling for a boycott of Musk’s Tesla empire; key line: ‘If you’re a fascist, then get a Tesla’. In the midst of all that protest, Talkin To The Trees (the lack of apostrophe is Young’s choice - the man is a grammar maverick) also finds Young taking solace in the people he loves.
Warm-hearted folkie opener Family Life alludes to his wife Daryl Hannah and name-checks his three children, but it also states that he’s estranged from his grandchildren. Dark Mirage, with its guttural, almost death metal-ish backing vocals, makes the same despairing point. Life ain’t perfect. However, the record concludes with the self-explanatory Thankful.
As for Young’s new band the Chrome Hearts, featuring Muscle Shoals legend and long-time Young collaborator Spooner Oldham on keyboards, they follow their benign leader where e’er he goes. The ‘rockers’ rage, the gentle, Harvest Moon-esque ballads lilt.
This isn’t an unexpected late-period Neil Young masterpiece, but that’s okay. He’s made his fair share of masterpieces, it’s unrealistic to expect another. What it is, though, is the weirdly comforting sound of an oddball genius proffering words of hope as the world burns all around us.
