Neil Young and Crazy Horse give an important message in ‘World Record’
Neil Young has returned to Shangri-La studios with producer Rick Rubin for a delightful 15th album with his backing band Crazy Horse. Over his illustrious 55-year recording career, Young has pushed the boundaries of rock music, weaving folk, blues, country and together in various combinations to make something novel and ever-absorbing. His insightful lyrics and unique vocal style act as the glacé cherry on top.
The new album, aptly titled World Record, marks Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s second album of 2022 following July’s Toast. The summer release consisted of material originally written in 2001 but had been shelved for over two decades because, according to Young, it was “so sad at the time that I couldn’t put it out.”
If Toast was a “sad” album, then World Record is generally a happy one, at least on the surface. It comes with a running narrative and a poignant message, which are deftly masked by the music’s generally upbeat nature and palpable yarns of love and optimism.
The album’s opening tracks, ‘Love Earth’ and ‘Overhead’, employ bright melodious piano runs to establish the concept. If the opening song’s name wasn’t a clue, this album sees Young return to his roots in the hippie era, and these opening tracks are packed full of fond nostalgia and a relish for love and life.
The album’s third track, ‘I Walk with You (Earth Ringtone)’, harkens back to the distortion and overdrive that Young honed in 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps, the album that earned Young the nickname, ‘Godfather of Grunge’. While the sound is heavier here, the rays of optimism prevail.
Approaching the centre of the album, Young develops the theme with ‘This Old Planet (Changing Days)’, which is another song of love and unity but with a subliminal yearning for humanity to respect and cherish one another and their environment. This message becomes all the more potent in the next song as we hit the first hint of stormy weather. Musically, it remains upbeat, with a thigh-slapping country-blues rhythm, but the titular chorus refrain says it all – “the world is in trouble now”.
At the core of the album’s narrative, we have learned of the past and listened to Young’s warning. It’s time now for a resolution; Young maintains that the world isn’t doomed; we just need to ‘Break the Chain’. This grungey single previewed the album, and after a full run-through, it remains a personal favourite.
After breaking the chain, we embark on our journey toward the future with ‘The Long Day Before’. The gentle rhythm brings the tempo back down from the previous central rock-out as Young identifies the elephant in the room that we must all face up to. The song closes with the lyrics: “People swear it’s a conspiracy / A dirty trick to get you and me / Into believing something’s not real”.
Concluding my interpreted narrative, ‘Walkin’ On The Road (To The Future)’ quite literally shows Young looking to the future with optimism, truly believing if we learn from yesterday, tomorrow can be better. “Walk with me brothers and sisters of the future / To the world as we know it and the Earth as we knew it / Hand in hand, fist to fist / With no more weapons, no more war/ No more war, only love,” the lyrics read.
Before a closing reprise of ‘This Old Planet’, we encounter a surprise beef wellington course to conclude proceedings. The 15-minute epic ‘Chevrolet’ gives the album a final kerosene blast of that long-loved Crazy Horse power as the band cascade through a wonderful guitar-driven rollercoaster.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse have by no means trampled any new turf with World Record. Musically, it combines the styles Young has explored over the past 55 years into one nostalgic and highly enjoyable package. Thematically, it reaffirms Young’s well-established values and begs all the right questions over a well-balanced range of tempos and styles.
Find the world’s most nihilistic town and run in the opposite direction. You’ll find Neil Young on a ranch somewhere, tending the view and hoping we can change our ways.
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