Arriving almost a decade after his last protest album, Living With War<\/i>, Neil Young and a new band of youngsters (compared to Crazy Horse, anyway) takes on corporate and political greed and environmental damage on The Monsanto Years. <\/i>The title explicitly refers to the seed and chemical company Monsanto (which produces genetically modified seeds and used to produce stuff like Agent Orange and DDT), but they are hardly the only targets here; Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Citizens United, Chevron and others are called out by name as contributors to our country\u2019s sad state of affairs.<\/p>\n
Folk music has long been about both storytelling and commenting on current events, and Young affirms that second purpose here. The nine songs revolve around the central themes stated above, with American apathy thrown in for good measure. Obviously, Young leans liberal, so there\u2019s a built-in audience who will hate this and love this regardless of any other factors. Such is life, especially with an election looming next year.<\/p>\n
For those without preexisting opinions on such matters, Young\u2019s plaintive, sarcastic, churlish-but-wise old coot persona remains appealing, and it\u2019s difficult not to get caught up in his pleas for people to pay attention to current events, for farmers to grow what they want and for political and corporate greed to have some sort of check\/balance system. \u201cPeople working part-time at Walmart \/ Never get the benefits for sure,\u201d Young notes in \u201cBig Box.\u201d \u201cIn the streets of the capital, corporations are taking control \/ Democracy crushed at their feet \u2026 Main Street\u2019s boarded up now, the whole town\u2019s asleep\u2026Out at the big box store, people lined up for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Promise Of The Real is no Crazy Horse, but they don\u2019t need to be. Young keeps the music firmly in his wheelhouse, adding a few short solos where needed but not expanding beyond the palette he has followed since 1989\u2019s Freedom<\/i>. Much like Living With War<\/i>, though, the music is secondary to the message, although \u2013 as on the whistling, cheerful \u201cA Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop\u201d and the driving, multilayered \u201cBig Box\u201d \u2013 the music perfectly drives home the point of the song. \u201cWolf Moon\u201d breaks from the pack (sorry) a little bit, sounding like a Harvest Moon <\/i>outtake with its simple acoustic guitar and harmonica lead and simple words evoking the beauty of nature.<\/p>\n
Still, this means the songs \u2013 many of which are repetitive beyond an initial riff, like the title song, the slow \u201cRules Of Change,\u201d and the awkward, humdrum opener \u201cA New Day For Love\u201d \u2013 just don\u2019t have staying power, and once the topical events and companies referenced fade into obscurity, this won\u2019t be a disc that fans clamor to listen to repeatedly. The best songs on Living With War <\/i>mixed timeless truths with great music (like \u201cThe Restless Consumer\u201d), and even now people who listen to it may wonder what a Rumsfeld is or what the \u201cwar\u201d of the title was all about. I only say that because not only is Jeb Bush running for president in 2016, but he is actually leading the Republican field\u2026which means people are seriously considering <\/i>electing a third <\/i>Bush to the White House. I nominate Daily Vault founder Christopher Thelen to run instead\u2026at least something would get done.<\/p>\n
Anyway. Although \u201cBig Box\u201d is the best song, \u201cPeople Want To Hear About Love\u201d is the most pointed jab at everyone, especially we Americans who care more about entertainment news and YouTube videos about cats than the real world. \u201cDon’t talk about the corporations hijacking all your rights \/ Don\u2019t mention world poverty, talk about global love \/ Don\u2019t say how Citizens United has killed democracy \/ Don\u2019t say pesticides are causing autistic children \/ Don\u2019t say people don\u2019t vote because they don\u2019t trust the candidates\u2026People want to hear about love.\u201d <\/p>\n
As a timely manifesto, like its predecessor, The Monsanto Years <\/i>hits as hard as any other current political rock document (not that there are many, except maybe Muse\u2019s Drones<\/i>) and affirms one of folk rock\u2019s longstanding traditions. As a rock album, and a Young album, this falls in the same middle ground as much of his post-1992 work: solid, a couple good songs, but not much more than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9665],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44184","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-neil-young-promise-of-the-real","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44184","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44184"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}