Album Review - Neil Young - Living with War

Neil Young is no stranger to penning protest songs, but unlike many of
his peers, his political affiliation isn't easy to pigeonhole. On
Ohio, he slammed Richard Nixon for the 1970 massacre of student
protestors by National Guardsmen at Kent State, yet by the time that
Campaigner was issued seven years later, he seemed to find empathy for
the former U.S. leader. He also publicly criticized Jimmy Carter,
ushered in the Reagan era with the flag-waving Hawks & Doves,
supported the tenets behind the Patriot Act, and responded to the 9/11
attacks with Let's Roll, an homage to the passengers on United Flight
93. On the other hand, he devoted a large portion of his life to
saving family farms from financial ruin at the hands of large
corporations, and he protested the Gulf War during his Arc/Weld tour
by shredding in Hendrix-ian fashion Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind
while standing in front of a tie-dyed backdrop of a peace sign.

Although, at first glance, Young's ideals appear to be little more
than a stream of scattered reactionary retorts, a closer examination
of his canon -- from After the Gold Rush to Rust Never Sleeps, from On
the Beach to Are You Passionate?, and from This Note's for You to
Greendale -- reveals a series of recurring themes that not only bind
together the totality of his work but also crystallize his beliefs
into a coherent vision that is well-suited to that bastion of
red-statehood: Middle America. Throughout Young's career, neither his
patriotism nor his spiritual convictions have ever wavered, and he
holds hard-working Americans as well as their families in high regard,
while downright despising those who abuse the power and the privileges
that are granted to them. In that sense, his latest outing Living with
War fits neatly within the framework of his back catalogue, and
considering that he can't be dismissed quite so readily as one of Move
On's leftist disciples, it ought to scare the bejesus out of a
Washington establishment whose popularity ratings have gone seriously
sour in recent months.

For certain, there's no mistaking Young's fury, and the brute force
with which Living with War's material is delivered perfectly
complements the raw emotional content of his lyrics. Written and
recorded over the course of two weeks and ushered to market in less
than a month, the angst-filled album boasts a bare bones band that
pits Young's frazzled, electric guitar snarls against a stampede of
drums and bass, all of which is colored by a mariachi trumpet and
uplifted by a 100-strong gospel choir that is meant to symbolize the
rising voices of American citizens.

This is an excerpt. To read the complete review, please visit:

http://www.musicbox-online.com/reviews-2006/neilyoung-livingwithwar.html