While Rascal Flatts has undoubtedly sold more records the past few years (and probably will this time out too), Neil Young still looms large as the biggest name with something new arriving this week. The thing is, with all of his on-again, off-again activity of late with the Archives series, it's tough to really get a handle as to just where the new Fork In The Road falls on Neil's list of priorities.

It doesn't feel Harvest or Rust Never Sleeps huge, that's for sure. At the same time, it also feels like much more than an afterthought, with the largely online marketing efforts including free streams all last week on MySpace, and now a promotional film you can see by going to Jaman.com.

As for the album itself, 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.

The other biggie this week is country megastars Rascal Flatts, who are Unstoppable on their new album. James Taylor's Other Covers is a companion piece to last year's set of Covers. Husker Du/Sugar frontman Bob Mould gets personal on his solo disc Life and Times. Jadakiss returns with The Last Kiss.

Pico will be along shortly with his thoughts on the new one from jazz saxman Jimmy Greene. But first Josh Hathaway goes all fanboy on ya' over a pair of British siblings who aren't named the Kinks or Oasis.

Stop me when you've heard this one before: two brothers from Manchester, UK form a band - no, not Oasis! I'm talking about Doves.

Kingdom of Rust is the fourth full length album from Manchester's other brothers and the long-awaited follow up to the fantastic Some Cities. Jimi Goodwin, the non-Williams brother in the trio, said the band went through a lot while making this record and likened the process to "therapy." That makes for a bad time for the artist but often makes for great listening. First single "Jetstream" was briefly offered as a free single. Whatever the band did during their extended recording process, it doesn't sound like they spent too much time messing with a good thing.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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