Neil Young, Living With War(Reprise)/Freebo, Before the Separation (Poppabo Music)
One thing you can say about the Boomers: succeeding generations will have to rip pop culture from their cold dead fingers. Neil Young’s fierce antiwar missive strives to be, like hip-hop, the CNN of its culture. But if, just post-9/11, he was urging everyone, “Let’s Roll,” that’s known as the kind of “flip-flop” he so self-righteously attributes to Dubya in the notorious “Let’s Impeach the President.”
And how is a Canadian dictating what the U.S. should do, even one so intimately wrapped up in our country? That said, you don’t have to dig Neil’s politics to appreciate the garage-rock fury of the title track, a 2006 version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime,” a plea for “Peace” that quotes the “Star-Spangled Banner,” no less. More effective still is Young’s blast at “The Restless Consumer,” a barrage that draws an unbroken line between the lies of Madison Avenue and those of our government.
Much more gentle is the third solo effort from longtime Bonnie Raitt fretless bass sideman Freebo, not coincidentally part of the 100-person vocal choir providing the wall of sound on Young’s album. Songs like “Stand Up,” “A Soldier at War”, and “The Freedom Wall” take America to task, but not harshly, for forsaking its original ideals. It's all delivered in a sing-song James Taylor-style croon that is as comfortable as a well-worn La-Z-Boy recliner. Still, it’s the personal songs, like “It Goes By Fast,” “The Beauty of Life”, and “Soul Mates”, that strike the strongest chords, offering a glimpse into a time when music could change the world, but only by affecting the individual first.
Paul Simon, Surprise (Warner Bros.)
In his own miniaturist way, Paul Simon examines the current zeitgeist by zeroing in on the micro to capture the macro. With Brian Eno, who is credited with “Electronics” and “Sonic Landscapes”, as a collaborator, Simon places his wistful melodies inside a framework of swirling ambience that at first sounds grafted on extraneously, but over time, begins to feel of a piece. The lyrics read like diary entries, though songs like the wistful “How Can You Live in the Northeast?” and “I Don’t Believe,” which touch on the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and “Wartime Prayers,” the celebrated plea for peace, try to connect the personal to the political like “Sounds of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” once did so effortlessly.
By the time he gets to “Once Upon a Time There Was an Ocean,” “That’s Me”, and “Father and Daughter”, Simon faces his own mortality with the kind of humility that makes him question why he’s “painting my hair the color of mud” and to declare “I’m an ordinary player in the key of C/And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity.” That kind of naked vulnerability, rather than any Eno-esque veneer, is what makes this Simon’s most relevant album in years.
Article comments
1 - lyle edwards
"Let's Roll," that's known as the kind of "flip-flop" he so self-righteously attributes to Dubya in the notorious "Let's Impeach the President."
There is no "flip flop". Neil Young stands by "Let's Roll" He is as proud of that song today as when he wrote it. The problem so many on the right have, is that they equate criticism of the president with anti country. How ridiculous.