The one thing you can always be sure of is that Neil Young will never lose touch with spitting out what he has to say and making it stick. By starting this album with his acoustic Harvest sound, he manages to trick the listener into slipping back through the aural history of his work, then before you know it he lets Crazy Horse break through with their massive sound. As you would expect, his trusted running partners rip and shred with their guitars at the fore while the psychedelic edge takes a background role.
There are a few songs on the album that may test your patience with the extended jams going for longer than 15 minutes. It's a rock'n'roll journey in the truest sense with Young revisiting an earlier era without the sentimentality that sinks some traditional musicians. Ramada Inn is a rambling mess but it captures that Americana spirit Young infuses into his songwriting. Driftin' Back, meanwhile, has the hallmarks of a classic Crazy Horse tune and is the closest to what you'd expect from this band with the history they have.
You always get the feeling Young is too smart to fall for the seduction of the hippy dream he helped create. As with other artists of his ilk, the way ahead is through the musical confusion and indulgence of his music and the band. The title track is an example of the fine line he walks – the riffs are there and the ideas are still sparking Neil's imagination. Overall, it's not his strongest album with Crazy Horse, but it definitely keeps his fans guessing.
