What Happened to Neil Young's New Release ???

I heard the NPR review as well, and they did not characterize the album as having been "thrown together". The reviewer said that while these were not the best songs Neil has ever written, with some of them going on perhaps a wee bit too long, he still enjoyed the album. His most significant point, and the summation of his review, was a disbelief that the most passionate musical commentary about the current state of the US had to come from a Canadian.

I heard the NPR piece and Boa2's description is the more accurate.

My own personal opinion is that the excerpts played did sound like songs that were hurriedly put together.

Nevertheless, I salute Neil Young for having the guts to take a stance in this age of artistic cowardice. It's very reminiscent of CSNY rushing "Ohio" to the airwaves in May 1970 because of the Kent State outrage. I was in college then and this event and "Ohio" as a call to action mobilized my campus.

Bravo,Neil!

It's being streamed on his web site: http://www.neilyoung.com/

I admire his willingness to take a stand, but don't particularly like this release. I prefer his Praire Wind, Harvest style releases

Kent State
May 4, 1970

Jackson State
2 weeks later

Neil Young has been "with it" a long time.

R_burke - Thanks for the link! Others can hear what they hear and filter through the mandatory niceties and reviwerspeak (or not)as they deem appropriate.
An honest question that comes to mind, is how could anybody charecterize a multimillionaire complaining about somebody else's country as 'gutsy'? If he was risking offense to anyone in his own country maybe that would be a little bit gutsy, or if he was offering legitimate improvement suggestions for criticism that seems like it would qualify. But if courage equates to just complaining then I've never met a coward. No offense to anyone, just opinion.