Neil Young and Crazy Horse - World Record

 This 2022 release was Young's 43rd (!!) studio album and his 15th with Crazy Horse (along with Nils Lofgren adding a number of instruments), produced by Rick Rubin and released as a three sided vinyl set (the fourth side being an etching) and a 2-CD set with the second CD supplying a whopping two songs! I know that Young likes his fidelity and I got this one from the library so I don't know for sure, but I sure hope that he priced this as a single CD and not a double! (According to Wikipedia, he released this on cassette, as well! Wacky!)

Opening with a kinda hokey, old-fashioned, piano-led, 50's-ish pop tune "Love Earth", the record does not have a strong start to my ears, but this was chosen as a single, so Young must have liked it. "Overhead" is a bit better, as a mid-tempo song with plenty of Neil-isms, also piano-led, with a semi-psych mid section! Interesting and different, even for him! From there we get some Crazy Horse crunch on the guitars in "I Walk With You", although it is still basically a ballad - I could hear this as an acoustic number, although I dig the distortion, the fairly stompin' mid section and hip Neil electric solo. "This Old Planet" - the Earth, its wonders and its fate, is basically the album's theme - is another piano ballad, then they pick up the pace for "The World (Is In Trouble Now)" that has a pump organ as its dominant instrument (outside of the insistent drums), giving it an odd, but cool flavor - maybe a little soul/R'n'B, somehow. 

Nice washes of distortion'n'feedback on "Break the Chain", with a call'n'answer melody, making it all sound like more "traditional" Crazy Horse (a good thing, to be sure!), while "The Long Day Before" is another pump organ ballad with choir-like choruses, "Walkin' On The Road (To The Future)" continues with pump organ'n'mouth organ'n'big choruses, and for the finale of disc 1, "The Wonder Won't Wait" has even more pump organ but in a more rhythmic way, giving it kind of a 60's garage feel (sorta/ kinda).

CD 2 opens with the 15+ minute ode to his beloved cars, "Chevrolet", that is an electric Crazy Horse epic with some great guitar work and plenty of Young-ish distortion, showing that he can still write a hip song and perform it with the same edge he always has had! The closer is a very, very quiet reprise of "This Old Planet" that is barely longer than a minute (if that), making this CD extraordinarily brief, but that's Neil for ya! 

Wile certainly not the best thing he has done, it it still totally listenable with some fine highlights - not bad after 50 years or so!