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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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MojoAn album of great emotional depth and uninhibited artistry. [Nov 2007, p.96]
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What 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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Unlike 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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The veteran rock 'n' roller manages a few neat tricks on this sprawling head-spinner.
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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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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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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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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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The album is a powerful exploration of faith, with Young circling his own mortality.
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Q MagazineAlmost 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 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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Overall though, is the album better than "Prairie Wind" or "Living With War"? Yes.
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But 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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It's alternately beautiful and banal.
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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.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 13
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Mixed: 2 out of 13
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Negative: 1 out of 13
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ToddW.Oct 25, 2007
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HughC.Oct 22, 2007