Neil Young

Neil Young

Around the time of Harvest Moon, 1992, a long-lost Neil Young acetate surfaced, 1977's Chrome Dreams, shiny with linchpins from Comes a Time ("Look Out for My Love"), Rust Never Sleeps ("Pocahontas"), American Stars 'n' Bars ("Like a Hurricane"), and Freedom ("Too Far Gone"). Seven new songs polish Chrome Dreams II, which glides past Young's well-meaning but flaccid new millennial output – Are You Passionate? (2002), Greendale (2003), and Living With War (2006) – in pulling alongside 2005's Prairie Wind, and near some aforementioned career peaks. The Harvest harp of opener "Beautiful Bluebird" sets a Sunday morning tone, followed by "Boxcar" and "The Believer" in bucolic warmth, but it's the 18-minute "Ordinary People" and slightly shorter "No Hidden Path" that hail CDII as gold-plated Young. The former's horn-born Ragged Glory – verse after inspired verse of declining Americana – and the latter's slow-burning melodicism should never cease. Long may they run.