Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II

Neil Young is no stranger to great songs. He’s become a machine of great songs, releasing record after record of perfectly polished, tightly wound albums that don’t waste time with mundane songs, forgettable tunes, or tunes that just hang in there. Somehow, he seems to just have that gene that not only identifies the great songs, but is able to collect them into one cohesive package that fits swimmingly together.

An Album-Long Ode On Beauty

His latest effort, Chrome Dreams II is one such collection, following up on the unreleased Chrome Dreams (part one) from 1977. This installment starts off with a sweet love song to nature and, in particular, "A Beautiful Bluebird." "Beautiful bluebird," he sings, "see how she flies / looks like she's always going home." Setting the stage for this album’s theme as focusing on beauty, Young lights into a group of protest songs.

Contrasting the natural beauty of the bluebird, Young's protest songs embody images of polished chrome—a thing that starts as just a block and, through some work and intuition, can be shaped into something beautiful.

Exceptional Protest Songs

"Ordinary People" is a remarkable 18-minute nugget of Neil Young-style protest rock. Here, he focuses hard and heavy on narrative lyrics interspliced with more specific statements about issues ranging from gun rights to nuclear waste storage, and characters adept at "ripping off the people / selling guns to the underground / living off the people...What starts out weak might end up strong if you can't tell foul from fair."

Once the lyrics have made their harshest statements, the song enters a clearing where an almost meditative horn section enters, backed by deliciously distorted electric guitars.

A Handful of Love Songs

From there, we move on to a handful of love songs, recovering from the length and fabulous intensity of "Ordinary People" with "Shining Light" and a motivational tune about keeping your eyes on the prize, "The Believer." "Dirty Old Man" is a fabulous tongue-in-cheek tune about pretty much what the title sounds like. A loud, hard rock tune driven by Young's glaring guitar, the lyrics cram just about every reprehensible comment about being a dirty old drunk into one song.

"Ever After" is a splendid steel guitar-driven alt.country number, where Young's penchant for smoothly layered harmonies drives the whole thing home. "The world is full of answers, some are right, some are wrong / the one that I believe in is the wishing song."

Finally, "The Way" to Peace

Finally, there is "The Way," which is the perfect song with which to end this disc. Backed by a children's chorus, driven by piano, Young's bouncing, whimsical melody tackles both hope and regret. He sings about "so many lost highways," tying back to the album's opener, where he had sung longingly about a bird that always seems to be headed home. Here, Young aptly brings the catharsis, singing, "If you're lost and think you can't be found...we know the way to get you back home to the peace where you belong."