Neil Young is a difficult man and with every new release you don't know whether you are going to get eyeball-melting fuzz guitar solos or a cringe-inducing piano ballad album with sketchy accompaniment or a play about a small town and its small town values. Chrome Dreams II is an album that does not really benefit from explanation: A lengthy album front-loaded with some very old songs that is ostensibly a sequel to a bootleg. Huh? The record also contains some tracks recorded almost 20 years ago, thus explaining why one track makes a lyrical reference to Lee Iacocca. But getting into lyrical preoccupations and all that other stuff isn't answering the question that Neil Young fans really want answered when a new CD comes out: Is there a 15-minute-long jam with Mr. Young's trademark guitar scuzz splattered all over it? Answer: yes. "No Hidden Path" doesn't have the guitar-as-grim-reaper-scythe dark majesty of "Cowgirl In The Sand" or "Cortez The Killer," but that's because this is a pretty upbeat album from a man who has, temporarily, already emptied his barrel of bile (on last year's Living With War) and is ready to contemplate the world around him with the stoned reverie of an old man persona that he continues to grow into.GENRE | BURNT OUT ROCK
VERDICT | WHERE ALL THE COWBOYS WENT
RELEASE | 10.23.07
LABEL | REPRISE
NEILYOUNG.COM
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