In an attempt to avoid a half-dozen posts tomorrow (and oh, do I ever have posts in mind…my god it’s been a busy four days), I figured I’d get this one out of the way:
Neil Young’s website (audio warning) currently features the entirety of his upcoming album Living with War as streaming audio. There doesn’t appear to be any way to pause or select specific tracks, but I’m totally unconvinced that it matters.
The story behind this album is pretty extraordinary – it was written, recorded and produced in something less than a week. Go here and bask.
Anyway, this was meant to be about the music, and although I’ve currently heard just the first three tracks (got shit to do, yo – can’t sit in front of my computer all night no matter how much I want), and they’re all perfectly sloppy. For those who (like me) think that “Ohio” represents an aesthetic peak of Neil’s career, this is the exact same sort of “get it out right now!!!” urgent folk rock (folk metal?), and it’s striking me right now as the best stuff he’s done since the 1970’s. And I still haven’t gotten to “Impeach the President.”
I’ll go ahead and assume that if you’re reading this blog, an album full of really angry rock music about how unendingly awful the administration and its works have been sounds alright, so let’s not worry about the content, just the music.
For those who just hate, hate, hate listening to music on the internet, it’ll be available in a week from Amazon. Buy it. It’s fucking awesome.
Just about to hit the “publish” button when “Shock and Awe” started. Best track of the first four. Neil, why are you so awesome?
Update 11:38 Okay, I got to “Impeach the President.” It’s an awesome choral piece (Neil Young with a fucking choir!), and lyrics that are, if not at The Nation levels of subtlety, pretty good for something a 60 year-old Canadian wrote in one sitting.
OH MY GOD there’s a rap bit with samples from Bush speeches.