Neil Young: Living with War (continued)

Picking up where I left off...

These are just first impressions, subject to change on repeated listening. Hear it free at Neil's site. Being a huge Neil Young fan, I am constrained to compare new work to previous work. That's because Neil sets a high standard, so he is compared against that high standard.

Track 4: "Shock and Awe"
Great opening guitar. Interesting use of "back in the days..." to refer to events 2 and 3 years old. A trumpet solo!

Track 5: "Families"
Nice beat. OK. Love those driving guitars that seem to be the musical glue of this album; sort of a tempered "Ragged Glory".

Track 6: "Flags of Freedom"
A nod to Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" at the end of the verses with "flags of freedom flyin'". Then there's a reference directly to the song from 1963. Harmonica solo continues the Dylan homage.

Track 7: "Let's Impeach the President"
Neil needs to tell us what he really thinks instead of being so poetic. yuck yuck. Actually, these lyrics are a bit too literal for my taste. Plus, his singing in unison (no harmonies I mean) with the 100-person choir seems to be simplistic sounding.

Track 8: "Lookin' for a Leader"
Now he's boring me!

Track 9: "Roger and Out"
A slow song. OK. Nothing great.

Track 10: "America the Beautiful"
The choir sings the traditional song. Nice to end on a patriotic note.

I noticed this CD is #3 on Amazon today. Not bad for an old hippie.
Overall, it doesn't blow me away. I bet these songs will sound great live on the upcoming CSNY tour though.