NEIL YOUNG & THE PROMISE OF THE REAL "the monsanto years"

[CRAZY-HORSE]

NEIL YOUNG & THE PROMISE OF THE REAL "the Monsanto years"

Neil is angry......very angry!
he isn't impressed with the whole Monsanto GMO thing,nor is he impressed with Starbucks for going 'to bed' with them....
he is angry at the state of the environment....
he is extremely pissed at 'corporate america' for their bully-boy tactics against the working man....
he is just as pissed,if not moreso, than he was during the whole "living with war" period under the rule of the younger Bush....
nine tracks on here featuring Willie Nelson's sons' band Promise Of The Real....
album isn't grungy, but it is electric.....sort of in the same vein as his "Greendale" album with CH.....
its a vast improvement on his last few albums, and I can see this one growing on me over time....
nothing really bad on it for me, just a steady chugga-chugga stomping album by an old man who has the balls to speak his mind...

"allmusic" give this one 3.5 stars out of 5, which equates to approxiamately 1.8 for me, and that score is about fair IMO

from the album, the lead-off single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC2DpGaykaI video

here's the "allmusic" take on the album:

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine:
Old folkie that he is, Neil Young harbors a soft spot for songs as protest, and The Monsanto Years is full of them. Where he often railed against war, here the purported target is the agricultural company Monsanto, a firm that, among other things, specializes in genetically modified crops, but Young uses that as a pivot to rage against all manner of modern outrages. Apathy among the populace, avarice among corporations, and cultural homogenization provide the throughline on The Monsanto Years, and while the weathered hippie takes some time to lay down his electric guitar and breathe, this isn't a mournful album like Living with War, his W-era missive. This is a raging record and to that end, Young hired the Promise of the Real, a ragtag outfit led by Willie Nelson's guitarist son Lukas, to approximate Crazy Horse's lop-legged lumber. Usually it works: the group roars not with righteousness but with their own glee at making noise. Plus, the Promise of the Real is adept at the softer side, too, so they ably follow Young, laying down the electric and harmonizing in a fashion reminiscent of an unwashed CSN. Young is blessed with a younger, wilier version of his old compadres and that suits his tunes, which feel comfortable yet have a bite. Young uses his sturdy footing to lash out at what he perceives as destructive forces -- to our dinner tables and social fabric -- and if the individual message may wind up fading like yesterday's newspapers, the music will keep The Monsanto Years burning bright.

[Jerome]

Very clever album artwork - that dollar bill looming over everything.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

You wouldn't like the album J-Man....
There's only one acoustic track on it...just Neil,guitar and harmonica, its a good track but not in the same league as his best stuff.
I'll be posting the APP and Waterboys albums tomorrow....stay tuned for the verdicts.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

album debuts on the Australian chart this week at #23

debuted on the UK charts at #40 this week