Album Review: Neil Young - Journeys

Journeys might be billed as part-road movie, but anyone expecting that will be sorely disappointed by the film, which is ostensibly a concert film, focusing on Young's 2010 LP Le Noise, with a light smattering of uninteresting anecdotes from Young's childhood. 

The music is great; Le Noise was a brilliant album and while Young's live performances of the songs lack the brilliantly bleak, chest crushing Daniel Lanois production, the songs stand up well and show just how versatile a guitarist Young is. The great Hitchhiker is the best of them here, one of the best performances in the entire film. Older tracks like After The Gold Rush, Ohio, which features a tribute to those fallen in the Kent State shooting and Down By The River all work well, but My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) is exceptionally affecting.

While you can appreciate director Jonathan Demme has tried to capture the feel of Young from an onstage perspective rather than that of an audience member, it doesn't work, coming off looking part-pretentious, part-half arsed. The extreme close ups of Young's face are completely overused and simply not fun to look at.

The brief parts with Young driving his 1956 Ford Crown Victoria are strange; he compliments his brother on the pace at which he drives, talks about killing a turtle as a child and sleeping in a tent to be closer to his chickens. Journeys is just a strange film overall. If you've a passing interest in Young – forget it. If you're a true fan, you'll need to see it, but lower your expectations. There's nothing groundbreaking here.