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Rating:
The political dimension has always been a constant in Neil Young’s universe: from the hippie sparks of CSNY to the cover of his masterpiece "On the Beach," featuring in particular a newspaper with a headline on Watergate, epitome of his generation's failure.
Young has always had a combative and direct attitude in this regard, never flattening himself on liberal stereotypes: occupying surprising positions, even reaching to graze populist shores at the height of disillusionment coming out of the '70s. Conceiving music as an outlet for political tensions, the author of "Harvest" has forged vivid frescoes that have gone down in history, such as "Ohio", "Southern Man", or "Rockin' in the Free World". He is not a prophet like Dylan, his poetic dimension is reserved for other aspects of his imagination: for example, the artist tormented by his ghosts and rust.
The political Young is frenetic, writing impulsively about what doesn’t sit well with him in society: he can write a masterpiece like "Ohio" in a few minutes, in front of an astonished David Crosby. It is therefore no surprise that his much-talked-about "Living with War" is an instant record, conceived and recorded around the month of April, and already available on the web on the official site. Even the stones of Matera now know that in the Canadian’s (since 1965 transplanted in California) sights is Bush's America and its disasters, from the Iraqi deserts to the swamps of New Orleans. Many titles are emblematic: "Shock and Awe" (code name of the operation that deposed Saddam Hussein), "Lookin' for a Leader", "Flags of Freedom", and even "Let's Impeach the President". Let’s be clear: we are not facing a tediously long sermon. Young’s barbs are illuminating insights on today’s USA, dazzling and even ironic chronicles. And then the Music, indeed. It was to be expected given the themes addressed: "Living with War" marks the return to rougher and more electrifying sounds, even without the faithful Crazy Horse.
Apart from the two concluding episodes (the midtempo of "Roger and Out", an innocuous nod to "Helpless" and the gospel diversion of "America the Beautiful"), Neil’s new effort reconnects the threads of electric tension, lowering the delicate harvestian flavors of the previous "Prairie Wind". The guitar parts are all his, and you can bet that our hero had a great time: it’s been since "Ragged Glory" and "Sleeps With Angels" that we haven't heard the perfection of those curare-laden riffs, of that distorted guitar as in "Shock and Awe" or the very intense "The Restless Consumer", both jewels with the drive of the best days. The rest of the album, though not reaching the peaks of these two episodes, flows like a river in flood, a worthy soundtrack to its author's anger. It’s spontaneous to compare it with Neil's last effort on Crazy Horseback, that "Greendale" endowed with contemporary political prerogatives, ambitious and perhaps slightly pretentious: far more agile is the listening to simple but perfect rock concoctions like "After the Garden", "Living with War", or the poignant "Families", often embellished by unexpected trumpet solos and choruses that emphasize the album’s message.
"Don’t need no TV ad tellin’ me how sick I am" exclaims an indignant Neil in "The Restless Consumer", and we all understand - quoting Public Enemy - that it’s the music that’s the message of this wonderful sixty-year-old.
PS three and a half stars
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 After the Garden (03:23)
Won't need no shadow man
Runnin' the government
Won't need no stinkin' WAR
Won't need no haircut
Won't need no shoe shine
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
What will people do?
After the garden is gone
What will people say?
After the garden
Won't need no strong man
Walkin' through the night
To live a weak man's day
Won't need no purple haze
Won't need no sunshine
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
Where will people go?
After the garden is gone
What will people know?
After the garden
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
(We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing to the ground
We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing down
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden)
03 The Restless Consumer (05:47)
The people have heard the news
The people have spoken
You may not like what they said
But they weren't jokin'
Way out on the desert sands
Lies a desperate lover
They call her the "Queen of Oil"
So much to discover
Don't need no ad machine
Telling me what I need
Don't need no Madison Avenue War
Don't need no more boxes I can see
Covered in flags but I can't see them on TV
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless consumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for taste and grace
People from around the world
Need someone to listen
We're starving and dying from our disease
We need your medicine
How do you pay for war
And leave us dyin' ?
When you could do so much more
You're not even tryin'
Don't need no TV ad
Tellin' me how sick I am
Don't want to leave
Don't want to know how many people are like me
Don't need no dizziness
Don't need no nausea
Don't need no side effects like diarrhea or sexual death
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless consumer lies
Asleep in her hotel
With such an appetite
For anything that sells
A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Need someone to listen
People are starving here and there
They don't see the world the way you do
There's no mission accomplished here
Just death to thousands
A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Cry out in unison
Don't need no terror squad
Don't want no damned Jihad
Blowin' themselves away in my hood
But we don't talk to them
So we don't learn from them
Hate don't negotiate with Good
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless comsumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for efficiency
And pace...
Don't need no more lies.
04 Shock and Awe (04:52)
Back in the days of shock and awe
We came to liberate them all
History was the cruel judge of overconfidence
Back in the days of shock and awe
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Our chief was landing on the deck
The sun was setting on a golden photo op
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Thousands of bodies in the ground
Brought home in boxes to a trumpet's sound
No one sees them coming home that way
Thousands buried in the ground
Thousands of children scarred for life
Millions of tears for a soldier's wife
Both sides are losing now
Heaven takes them in
Thousands of children scarred for life
We had a chance to change our mind
But somehow wisdom was hard to find
We went with what we knew and now we can't go back
But we had a chance to change our mind.
05 Families (02:25)
When you try to bring our spirit home
Won't you celebrate our lives
In a way that's right for our children
And families
When you write your songs about us
Won't you try to do us justice
Because we want to be just like you
And your families
I see a light ahead
There's a chill wind blowin' in my head
I wish that I was home instead
With my family
There's a universe between us now
But I want to reach our and tell you how
Much you mean to me
And my family
I'm goin' back to the USA
I just got my ticket today
I can't wait to see you again
In the USA.
08 Lookin' for a Leader (04:03)
Lookin' for a leader
To bring our country home
Re-unite the red, white and blue
Before it turns to stone
Lookin' for somebody
Young enough to take it on
Clean up the corruption
And make the country strong
Walkin' among our people
There's someone who's straight and strong
To lead us from desolation
And a broken world gone wrong
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
Maybe it's Obama
But he thinks that he's too young
Maybe it's Colin Powell
To right what he's done wrong
America has a leader
But he's not in the House
He's walking here among us
And we've got to seek him out
Yeah we've got our election
But corruption has a chance
We got to have a clean win
To regain confidence
America is beautiful
But she has an ugly side
We're lookin' for a leader
In this country far and wide
We're lookin' for a leader
With the great spirit on his side
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
09 Roger and Out (04:25)
Trippin' down that old Hippie Highway
Got to thinkin' 'bout you again
Wonderin' how it really was for you
And how it happened in the end
But I guess I'll never know the truth
If you were really all alone
We were just a couple of kids then
Livin' each and every day
When we both went down to register
We were laughin' all the way
That's when we named it The Hippie Highway
I still call it that today
Roger and out good buddy
I still call it that today
Two camaros racin' down the road
Feels just like yesterday
Roger and out good buddy
I feel you in the air today
I know you gave for your country
I feel you in the air today
Roger and out good buddy
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By Lesto BANG
This is a terribly boring and limp album that might be salvaged at a literary level but is definitely to be sunk for the musical part.
Why an album? Someone like Neil Young, why didn’t he write a book on the subject instead of a sloppy disc full of slogans and predictable clichés?
