I'm always a little apprehensive when an older artist I like releases a new album. There's usually a good chance that whatever it is will probably disappoint me and if it's bad enough, make me question why I liked their work in the first place. Usually an artist has reached their creative peak by the time they reach the age where their mailbox is flooded with circulars from the AARP. There are some artists who tend to buck this trend, such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Neil Young although they do sometimes release clunkers.
I'm going through a bit of a Neil Young phase as of late. I wear my Tonight's The Night t-shirt every week and I've listened to the album so much that when I hear "Lady Jane" by The Rolling Stones, I hear the lyrics to "Borrowed Tune." Which is why I was so interested in Neil Young's new album especially when I found out that Daniel Lanois was producing it.
The album title, Le Noise, is a pun based on Daniel Lanois' last name. Lanois is a producer who is really great at creating sonically interesting textures and really getting good music out of the artists with which he works. He produced two of my favorite latter day Bob Dylan albums, Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind.
So I was expecting some great stuff on this record, which is why my heart was filled with dread when I read a review on the A.V. Club that described Neil Young's new record as chillwave. Chillwave bores me to tears and is my most hated new genre. It sounds like technicolor vomit to me.
I realized from the first track, that the A.V. Club was full of it. The record does feature some musical textures that perhaps could be at home on a chillwave record, but describing it as such is completely ridiculous. It's like describing, "Feel" by Big Star as jazz, just because it features saxophones. It's enough to make a man consider trolling the comment section of the review, but I'd rather not waste my time spewing bile over the internet for something like music.
"Walk With Me" the opening track kicks things off with a blast of distorted guitar that has become Young's trademark. The last two lines of the song, "I lost some people I was traveling with/ I missed a soul in the old friendship," are particularly poignant. Devoted fans of Neil Young are well aware of how many friends and family members he has had to bury. Young's brush with mortality in 2005 due to a brain aneurysm really lit a fire under him creatively. He has been touring and releasing more material than many artists half his age.
"Sign Of Love" is another song featuring the guitar sound Young perfected on Rust Never Sleeps. It's a straightforward, rocker with one of Young's great big, dumb riffs. Processing on the vocals give it an interesting sonic texture. Lyrically, it's not one of Young's most interesting but it's a solid album cut.
"Someone's Gonna Rescue You" features a guitar sound that's a cross between the frenetic energy and dread of "Revolution Blues" and the powerful, world beating tone of "Powderfinger." Daniel Lanois' production really adds a lot to this song.
"Love And War" is the first time on the album that we hear Young play an acoustic guitar. Young sings it in his fragile, beautiful tenor, which has a melancholy quality that just rips your heart out. Lyrically, it's one of the saddest songs on the album. The production is minimal, which really adds to emotional resonance of the song.
"Angry World" was the first song that I heard from the album and was got me really excited about it. It reminded me of "Sleeps With Angels" on first listen because of the pervasive sense of dread and sadness. I enjoyed it a little less hearing it in the context of the album. There are stronger songs on the album than this, but it's by no means terrible.
"Hitchhiker" is another Neil Young song about drugs. I always enjoy his songs about illicit substances whether it's a cautionary tales like "The Needle And The Damage Done" or about the inventiveness of marijuana growers in "Homegrown".
"Peaceful Valley Boulevard" is another acoustic number and the longest song on the album. Lyrically it touches on another one of Young's favorite subjects, nature and what humans have done to ruin and plunder the Earth. Young paints humans as invaders, ruining the peacefulness of the world with their pursuit of wealth and power. Sometimes Young's songs in this vein come off as ham-fisted and too on the nose lyrically. I feel this one worked well, particularly the image of the polar bear drifting on an ice floe while world leaders do nothing. It's a funeral song for a planet on the brink of death.
"Rumblin'" builds on the ecological dread of the previous track. There is a sense of looming danger and paranoia on the track but we never see what it is that has Young so worried. When the song ends, it's like watching a group of dark storm clouds pass over you, there's a pressure change and they might rumble but no forks of lightning stab the ground. You breathe a sight of relief that you have been spared, but deep down you know that next time you might not be so lucky.
Grade: A-
-Andrew Crowley
