Typically, the release of a new Neil Young album gets a warm
\nresponse from hard-core fans and an indifferent shrug from the
\nmajority of listeners.<\/p>\n
However, in the case of
\nAre You Passionate?<\/i> it’s likely that some people coughed up
\nthe cash just to hear “Let’s Roll.” The song is Young’s tribute to
\nthe passengers of Flight 93 who helped bring down the jet, which
\nwas under terrorist control on Sept. 11, 2001. It was one of the
\nfirst songs by a major artist to directly address the events of
\nSeptember 11. Unfortunately, the song begins with the ring of a
\ncell phone. It’s supposed to be chilling, but comes off as hokey.
\nThe rest of the song begins to get bogged down by a riff that
\nsounds like it was lifted from David Bowie’s song “Fame.”<\/p>\n
Other songs smack of familiarity. “Mr. Disappointment” sounds
\nlike discarded Tom Waits. And the guitar riff on “You’re My Girl”
\nis straight out of a typical Lynyrd Skynyrd song — which is
\nstrange because that band’s hick anthem, “Sweet Home Alabama,” was
\nbasically a swipe at Mr. Young.<\/p>\n
Often,
\nAre You Passionate?<\/i> sounds like you’re sitting in on a solid
\nnight at a local blues bar. Percussionist Steve Potts lays down a
\nbasic drum beat for almost every cut and the guitar work by Young
\nand Frank Sampedro has a dirty, grimy, bluesy feel. Unfortunately,
\nmost of the tracks on
\nAre You Passionate?<\/i> just sound like pedestrian blues: The
\nartistry is present but the sound is too complacent. Young’s blues
\nfix now undoubtedly is fueled by producer Booker T. Jones. The
\nlegendary guitarist of Booker T. and the MGs also plays organ as
\nwell as supplying some vocals on “Are You Passionate?”<\/p>\n
The album is by no means a career-suicide album. Young did not
\nopt to infuse electronica a la
\nTrans<\/i>, nor did he pull in as many guests as he could find to
\nmake the album more marketable a la Santana. For that, he should be
\napplauded.<\/p>\n
From his solo projects, beginning in the 1970s until today, Neil
\nYoung has dropped some clunkers for each decade he has continued to
\nplay. The kicker is that for every weak album he releases, there is
\nalways a possibility that there’s a great album like
\nHarvest Moon<\/i> or
\nRagged Glory<\/i> right around the corner. That hope of another
\npotential Young classic should be enough to keep listeners engaged,
\neven through his artistic missteps. But in the case of this 2002
\nalbum, there’s very little for a listener to get passionate
\nabout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5692],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-37755","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-neil-young","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37755"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}