Neil Young — Fork In The Road

Fork In The Road

Reprise/Warner

Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

04/07/2009 2:18pm

Young's concept album about his LincVolt electric car project and the sorry state of the economy shows the man still has lots of music and ideas in him after more than 40 years of releasing solo records.

"When Worlds Collide" is a bluesy rock tune that effectively opens the album. "Get Behind The Wheel" follows a similar musical style later on, while making more use of the backing vocals of Young's wife, Pegi, who can be heard throughout the disc.

Young has a distinctive guitar style that can be instantly recognized, and nowhere is this more true than on "Just Singing A Song." Songs won't change the world, he sings, which is why he's tried to put his words into action for years before his latest attempt with Fork In The Road.

There are two videos for "Johnny Magic," the closest this 10-track effort comes to a pop song, but the lyrics deal with the hard times people are going through these days and not anything as upbeat as the tune might suggest. Ben Keith's pedal steel works subtly but well on "Light A Candle," an acoustic song of hope that leads into the album-closing title cut about the financial crisis and Young's yearning for a return to the way the music industry used to be. It has a repetitive guitar riff, but it works.

Young is 63 and showing no signs of slowing down. Fork In The Road definitely won't rank with the best albums of his prodigious career, but I'd still take it over Landing On Water, Are You Passionate? and perhaps a couple of others.

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