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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Living With War
by Neil Young


8.4

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 49 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

FILM:

Neil Young: Heart Of Gold

Official Artist Site

The singer-songwriter recorded this strongly political (and anti-Bush) ten-song set in just two weeks earlier this year.

LABEL:	Reprise
RELEASE DATE:	09 May 2006
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock

NOTES: Streaming free online at neilyoung.com beginning 28 Apr 2006; released for purchase online 2 May 2006; released on CD 9 May 2006.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Los Angeles Times

The sheer brazenness of this collection is refreshing after years of timidity in the upper echelons of the pop world. [6 May 2006]

Tiny Mix Tapes

Living With War is instantly the most incisive and penetrating album that Young has released in years, and it is arguably the most vital of his career.

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

OK, more news event than musical milestone. But a really great news event.

Entertainment Weekly

Young hasn't sounded this fired up in years.

Q Magazine

A revelation, brimming with passion and some of the best melodies Young has penned in the last 30 years. [Jul 2006, p.113]

Dot Music

It may not be his best album but it ranks as one of his most important.

Uncut

For those of us who prefer Neil when he's plugged-in and splenetic, it's tempting to call the album his best since 1990's Ragged Glory. Living With War, though, is too much of a frontline dispatch, too consumed with the present, to be easily catalogued for posterity. [Jul 2006, p.82]

Lost At Sea

Now then, aside from all that, "After the Garden" and "Families" are right up there with "Rockin in the Free World" for displays of board-stomping bravado, which is of course much less the goal here than raising awareness.

Billboard

A milestone effort.

NOW Magazine

A courageous statement that should resonate far and wide.

The Guardian

The challenge of writing songs designed to lodge immediately in people's heads seems to have forced Young to come up with strong melodies, something else noticeably absent in his oeuvre of late.

Rolling Stone

He has not written and recorded with such emergency since "Ohio."

Pitchfork

Living With War's short gestation benefits Young's performance, inspiring him to make his loudest, rawest release of new material since at least Ragged Glory, maybe even Rust Never Sleeps.

cokemachineglow

Young's best record since at least Mirror Ball and probably Ragged Glory.

E! Online

The reactionary disc is a step up from 2003's similarly political offering, Greendale, largely because it doesn't come disguised as some community-theater production.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

With few exceptions, Young's own "Ohio" being one of them, moment-specific protest music tends to dry up and blow away. But that's for the future. For now, Living With War accomplishes exactly what it sets out to accomplish, loudly.

The New York Times

"Living With War" -- irate, passionate, tuneful, thoughtful and obstinate -- is definitely worth a click.

PopMatters

In context, no song on Living With War is as simple as it may seem on its own--not a bumper sticker, not a pamphlet, not the slightest wrinkle in a Sunday morning pundit’s furrowed brow. It’s a direct shot into the national discourse from a rock world that has been largely silent until recently.

All Music Guide

[The songs] manage to be unified in a way that Young wanted Greendale to be but didn't quite pull off, yet they also stand on their own and are, overall, more memorable than those on Prairie Wind.

Blender

It's brave, and it's needed. [Jul 2006, p.95]

Mojo

And the songs? Urgent, instant, bolshie mostly, with a stronger individual melodic sense than, say, Greendale, but without the intense beauty of, say, Ohio. [Jul 2006, p.112]

Paste Magazine

The album has the instantaneous feel of a blog. [Aug 2006, p.93]

Austin Chronicle

Living With War: American Idiot for hippies.

New Musical Express

Really, what's to be gained from simplistic sloganeering like, "We don't need no more lies!" [20 May 2006, p.33]

The average user rating for this album is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Benedict A. gave it a9:
I think its amazing how Neil Young has stayed in touch and is still releasing songs that exemplify his rock and roll attitude.

Johanna P gave it a10:
a compelling and beautiful complete work for a world that needs to find peace inside and outside the heart beat.

IlliniQ gave it a7:
Full of lyrical intent and energy, but musically feels like such a rush job rehash of better/older works. Think Ragged Glory without the electric jams that made that album Young's best since the 70s, if not in his entire solo career.

FoxyladyDee gave it a9:
A most welcome blistering attack and righteous indignation at Bush and his cronies. Let's Impeach The President is worth the price of the album alone!!!!!!!!!

Matt D. gave it a10:
What a great CD for the times! It was a nice touch to add 60s-style lo-fi production. It accentuates the protest feel. Favorite song: "Let's Impeach The President," with President Bush's flip-flop statements in the background. The CD also gives a human side to the soldiers fighting in Iraq - the left cares about the soldiers a lot.

Mr. Rabid gave it an8:
this album is for americans, but i still really enjoyed it . its great to hear artists more interested in songs than production values - you can't polish turds

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
neil young raw at his best. furious and political. it doesn't get any better than this.

Living With War by Neil Young

Living With War
by Neil Young