Metaphorically speaking, septuagenarian rocker Neil Young is his own grandpa. For the last half-century, Young has made music that sounds like no one else’s. His voice and guitar are immediately identifiable, and his songcraft draws upon itself religiously. Young has released more than a half-dozen live albums in his career, and his ecology-themed 2015 concert recording Earth is merely a reflection of where he’s been coming from in recent times.
Highlighting the anti-corporate sentiments from studio disc The Monsanto Years, Young & Promise Of The Real make their point without leaning too heavily on that recording. To wit: Young revives eco-friendly songs from his older catalog, binding them together into a suite-like whole. The two-CD set spans nearly 100 minutes, integrating sonic embellishments and cleaning out the crowd backdrop in favor of animal sounds and organic noises, as well as flanging his voice electronically for a modern feel.
Pushing his backing band (featuring Willie Nelson’s kids Lukas and Micah Nelson on guitars and vocals) into a stomping Crazy Horse vibe, Young provides the album’s frills with his keening voice and bracing guitar. Opening with vintage Ragged Glory composition “Mother Earth” (whose melody echoes the old Scottish folk song “The Water Is Wide”), Young repeatedly references his own music. He ends it all with another Ragged Glory tune, “Love & Only Love,” stretched out for 28 minutes. Pondering the lyrics of “Big Box” from The Monsanto Years, Young’s sly corporate reference “too big to fail” might also be considered when discussing himself.
—Mitch Myers
