Chrome Dreams II
- Neil Young
- Band Name: Neil Young
- Record Label: Reprise/Wea
- Release Date: Oct 23, 2007
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100An album of great emotional depth and uninhibited artistry. [Nov 2007, p.96]
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Backed with the gusto of big horns, Young's guitar is once again a thing of wonder on this track, now slashing and burning, now playing transcendent dance riffs.
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90What we have here is easily Mr. Young's finest work in years, one that erases the memory of his well-intentioned but anemic 2006 protest album, "Living with War."
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90Unlike his recent output, there's no overarching preoccupation here, there is only a bunch of good tunes.
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It is his most enjoyable and well-rounded one in, like, an eternity.
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It's a well-rounded album that defies the notion of a man being allowed to rock himself to sleep on the porch of rock's sappy dotage.
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80The album is a powerful exploration of faith, with Young circling his own mortality.
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This doesn't make for an album that holds together thematically the way other latter-day Neil albums do, but its mess is endearing.
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80Almost the equal of 'Ordinary People,' 'No Hidden Path' again demonstrates that when the contary old buzzard plugs in and really goes to work, it's still a thrill like no other. [Dec 2007, p.113]
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Chrome Dreams II, on which various Neils commingle to an extent not heard on record since perhaps 1989's "Freedom," immediately comes off as the 61-year-old artist's freshest effort in years.
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80The veteran rock 'n' roller manages a few neat tricks on this sprawling head-spinner.
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With its varied sound and subtle optimism, Chrome Dreams II stands in marked contrast to Young's more strident recent efforts, but at least he got around to sharing these dreams.
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Chrome Dreams II is effective despite the sonic clash because, on both the new material and the leftovers, the loud ('Spirit Road') and the soft (the soul ballad 'Ever After'), it's unified by its call to give props to spirit and humanity, a sentiment that, whatever it's wrapped in, never gets old.
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70But vintage doesn't mean nostalgic. 'Dirty Old Man' is the pissed, hilarious antithesis of his wide-eyed '70s signature 'Old Man,' and it rivals Nick Cave's 'No Pussy Blues' (see Grinderman) as the year's best song about a deranged, horny graybeard.
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70Overall though, is the album better than "Prairie Wind" or "Living With War"? Yes.
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Seven new songs polish Chrome Dreams II, which glides past Young's well-meaning but flaccid new millennial output--"Are You Passionate?" (2002), "Greendale" (2003), and "Living With War" (2006)--in pulling alongside 2005's "Prairie Wind," and near some aforementioned career peaks.
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It's alternately beautiful and banal.
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Young was right to close with 'The Way,' a gloriously simplistic salvation song backed by a children's chorus that deserves to become his 'Give Peace a Chance.' But beyond that it's miss-or-hit.
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60Just when the listener starts reflecting on Young's waning abilities, two songs arrive that suggest the fire is far from out.
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Young uncorks his storied one-two punch, mounting a pair of sweeping, detailed social narratives while ripping away at the guitar strings, laying his psyche bare. Long may he rave.
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60Anyone looking for another 'Hurricane' will be disappointed--but, for sheer eclecticism, the record hits a number of highs.
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It's a return to a time when Young albums felt like ingenious mixtapes--where Crazy Horse tracks, Stray Gators tracks, and duets with Linda Rondstadt intermingled without being jarring in the least.
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60Although Young's compositions on Chrome Dreams II aren't quite up to the quality planned for the first volume, the 10 songs at least have some of the shape and gravity if not the epic dimension of his classics written decades ago.
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A collection that's muddled but peppered with gems.
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60Instead of having to suffer the middling albums for years before some sort of payoff, you get a nice mixture here, and thankfully the ratio is reversed in favor of the solid material.
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56Though having one good trick in the bag keeps him from becoming a mere oldies jukebox like so many other 40-year rock vets, the sampler platter of Chrome Dreams II suggests his renowned versatility, by comparison to its cult-classic ancestor, ain't what it used to be.
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43While Chrome Dreams II was clearly modeled after his more "classic" sounding work, it finds Young sounding like little more than a knockoff of his former self.
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