FOREVER YOUNG
AFTER all the albums that have fragmented Neil Young’s audience between hawks ‘n’ doves or rockers ‘n’ strummers, cranky Grandpa Granola’s latest, “Chrome Dreams II” (Reprise), attempts to be everything to everyone.
At times this album is amped with electric fury and in the silence between tracks flips to warm and fuzzy acoustic lullabies and hymns. Eclecticism is Young’s religion on this 10-song record.
“Chrome” not only defies style, it is a nonlinear history of his catalog where an 18-minute 1988 version of “Ordinary People” is side by side with just-minted songs like the rocking confessions of a drunk called “Dirty Old Man.”
Because of his love of musical experimentation it’s hard to like everything Young does here, but for the most part this is his best record in recent memory. Download: “No Hidden Path.”
