Many years ago, Martyn Turner drew a series of cartoons that imagined the future lot of the ageing rock star. For Neil Young he had his children pleading, "Dad, can you please turn it down?" or words to that effect. That trope of the ageing rocker dad, nay grandad, driving his long-suffering children to exasperation has since become commonplace. But if Neil Young ever got that message, he happily ignores it, especially when he teams up with old friends Crazy Horse.
This is Young's 41st studio album and his 14th with his favourite backing band. They have been a sometime partnership since 1969's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young, who turned 76 last November, recorded Barn in a, duh, barn in Colorado with the latest version of Crazy Horse, double-jobbing guitarist Nils Lofgren (70) joining Ralph Molina (drums) and Billy Talbot (bass) who both clock in at an impressive 78. Lofgren, also a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, rejoined Crazy Horse in 2019 when longtime guitarist Frank Sampedro retired, understandably, with arthritis in his hands.
Barn follows 2019’s impressive Colorado and is in the same rugged, honest, defiant vein, each song played and recorded live, the tone more important than any imperfection, the sound instantly recognisable. Nobody plays electric guitar like Neil Young, one minute pensive and restrained, the next angling angry piercing notes into the ether, blurred, distorted, a struggle within. Lofgren, no slouch in guitar pyrotechnics, for the most part simply supports his new boss, whether that be on piano, or accordion, as on the plaintive harmonica-led opener, Song of the Seasons. Barn, in general, avoids epic guitar flights, but songs such as the ominous Welcome Back have the potential to run and run in a live context; though how much longer will these seasoned warriors tour?
Young has always strived to communicate on an emotional level and he remains as committed as ever, whether that be politically or personally. His 2018 marriage to actor Daryl Hannah is celebrated in the countryish The Shape of You – "You changed my life for the better/ Wore my love like your favourite sweater" – while Heading West cranks the band into muscular action with Young reflecting wistfully on his upbringing.
As ever, Young’s lyrics would not trouble the Nobel Prize for Literature judges, but he knows how to lead the chants at the barricades: “Today no one cares/ Tomorrow no one shares,”he sings in the fiery environmental protest song Human Race. Critics may say his songs border on gauche and predictable, but he imbues them with such intensity, conviction and colour that we can but admire him.
