Young's latest lacks 'Passion'

Are You Passionate?\nNeil Young\nReprise\nIn between the minimalist soul and staccato guitar rhythms, you'll hear the creaking of bones. Neil Young and his backing band on Are You Passionate?, Booker T. and the MG's, are old enough to have seen rock's dawn and invent its golden age. Their innate skill produces an album that sounds vital, but Young's countrypolitan lifestyle shows through in the worn-out lyrics. \nOnce upon a time, Young was an eminent surrealist and had a knack for showing both sides of a story. Stepping away from the rockstar lifestyle might have done well for his nerves, but it was the intense daily world, which Young took so personally, that fueled his best work. \nTake his ode to Sept. 11 hero Todd Beamer, "Let's Roll"; "Let's roll for Freedom / Let's roll for Love / We're goin' after Satan / On the wings of a Dove" -- sounds like some crap right? Doesn't compare to "Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'" or "I got the revolution blues / I see bloody fountains / And 10 million dune buggies comin' down the mountains," right? Young used to paint his enemies clearer than this. On "Let's Roll," his enemy is just referred to as Satan. \nOn the flip side, Are You Passionate? is an amazing pastoral album with all the warmth of a cuddly Grandpa. The sound of the album is a mix of the '60s Memphis soul that Booker T. created, and the intimate folk music of Young's solo albums. \nI prefer to hear Young grow old with a rock band than the sentimental fireside-folk of 2000's Silver and Gold. I also prefer him to sing about a culture that he understands, which is clearly the domestic life. True to his unsettled image, he sounds most plausible when he sings, "Well I took you for a walk on the forest floor / 'Cause I wanted to share some things / But it sure looked to me like you'd been there before," on "You're My Girl." \nYou all knew Neil Young never really meant, "It's better to burn out than to fade away," right?\n

\n\n