Neil Young has announced that he will world premiere his new album Fork In The Road on MySpace Music. Beginning today, fans can stream the album in its entirety for free by going to Neil Young's MySpace profile page. Fork In The Road will be released commercially by Reprise records on April 7.
Fork In The Road is a new series of songs inspired both by the world economic and climate change crises, as well as by Neil Young's well-documented obsession with cars — specifically the LincVolt, a 1959 model Lincoln that Young has restored and converted into an electrically powered hybrid. Many of the songs were first performed live during Young's world tour last year.
Songs like first single "Cough Up The Bucks" and the title track reflect Young's obsessions both lyrically, and in the raw garage-rock sound of the music itself. The sound of the album has been compared to Living With War, Neil Young's infamous anti-Bush themed "folk metal protest" album from 2006.
In other Neil Young news, the artist's decades in the making anthology set Archives Volume I - 1963-1972 has been given the green light by Young for a June 2nd release. The oft-delayed project is really coming out this time, according to insiders. "It's at the factory right now," co-producer Larry Johnson recently told Rolling Stone. The career-spanning ten-disc multimedia package will be available in three versions: Blu-ray (approximately $300.), DVD ($200.), and CD ($100.).
Over a decades long career, Neil Young has both defined musical parameters, and defied them, switching gears often between the electric assault of albums like Ragged Glory and Arc/Weld, and the more laid-back mellow groove of Harvest Moon and Prairie Wind. In between he has also experimented with genres ranging from country (Old Ways) to rockabilly (Everybody's Rockin') to blues (This Notes For You). Five decades later, Neil Young remains as vital an artist as ever.
You can stream the new album Fork In The Road right now by going to Neil Young's MySpace page.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
I liked what I have heard.
2 - Glen Boyd
Yeah, me too. I wouldn't call it his best or anything like that...but on an initial listen, its definitely decent.
-Glen
3 - Mat Brewster
Wow, I clicked over to the old Living with War review, knowing it was a gigantic mess (the comments not the review) but man I had forgotten how big gigantic really is. Did you create a spam filter just for those comments Glen?
4 - JC Mosquito
I've got tickets (I think) to see Neil near the end of the month - how much of this stuff is he playing on his current tour? Ain't got no T-Bone would fit in nicely here.
5 - Glen Boyd
Mat,
Actually in a weird sort of way, that whole thing was kinda fun. Although it did get very old after a couple of months.
At the time, I was new to Blogcritics and the whole internet journalism thing...and I was both amazed and flattered how an article by little old me could generate 500 comments.
Once I figured out that the majority of the comments were coming from a lone right-wingnut going under a variety of names (Mookey, Rubberneck, etc.) however, it became much less flattering. I did a preview of Living With War prior to the review, and the same guy posted a couple hundred comments there too.
For me, it was kinda like "welcome to writing on the internet."
The odd thing though is, I actually kinda miss the attention. I do know that my various columns here like the Rockologist and NAR do pretty well in terms of getting the looks and all...
But I have to confess that I miss having a real slam-dunker like that one. I think my last legitimate one was the Howard Stern article I did when he first went to Sirius, written mostly as a afterthought, that ended up getting read on air by Howard himself.
I'd love another one of those!
-Glen
6 - Glen Boyd
JC,
I'd love to hear T-Bone live. But even moreso,I'd love to hear Southern Pacific.
Got mashed potato?
-Glen