Neil Young
Fork in the Road
Rating: 2.5
Label: Reprise
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Let's face it: Fork in the Road is not the Neil Young release most people are anticipating this year. That release would be the oft-delayed Archives Vol. 1, a mammoth set chronicling 1963-1972, just a smidgen of a career that has been filled with beautiful songs and strange detours. While Fork in the Road does not rank with Young's worst (that distinction goes to Landing on Water), there is nothing essential or groundbreaking here; worse, this record feels more throw-away than revolutionary.
I have been a fan of Young since my high school days (around his triumphant mid-1990s resurgence) and rabidly bought up all his albums and attended his concerts until he priced me out with $100+ tickets. I even had copies of his Missing Six albums before some were re-released on CD. So, for many years, I looked forward to every Young release, taking the good (Sleeps With Angels) with the mediocre (Are You Passionate?). It must be difficult for an icon to equal or top his best work, but Young never seemed to be interested in such goals. Instead he wrote music with Pearl Jam, created a song cycle paired with a stage presentation that would have pleased Thornton Wilder and wrote inspired music that lashed out at the Bush administration.
On Fork in the Road, Young has put out 10 songs that many other reviews claim are about his electric car. While many of these songs are about his automobile (a '59 Lincoln), there is also a deeper message at hand. Young continues to rail on about the government, American dissipation and the dissolution of the dream of the late 1960s. But while Young had the easy target of the Bushies to nail with Living With War, his quarry is less tangible this time around. Rather than sound like an incisive rocker with an intelligent worldview, Young comes off more like a disillusioned old hippie bitching about the injustices of the world.
There has been a pattern to Young's albums: either quiet folk songs or rockers a la his Crazy Horse days. Fork in the Road is in full Re-ac-tor mode with chunky guitar and bluesy riffs. Many of the songs here have a similar sound - how could they not with titles like "Off the Road," "Hit the Road" and "Fork in the Road?" "Get Behind the Wheel" mines the same traditional that Tom Waits grabbed with "Get Behind the Mule," changing the lyrics to "Get behind the wheel in the morning and drive." Ballad "Light a Candle" provides respite from the sloppy rockers, but it still sounds somewhat tossed off. And "Johnny Magic" recalls Rust Never Sleeps with its refrain that mimics both "Powderfinger" and "Hey Hey My My." None of these songs are terrible (with the exception of "Cough Up the Bucks"), but in the hands of a legend such as Young, they just feel sloppy. There is too much choir and not enough precision. Longtime fans will certainly find something to like, but Fork in the Road cannot be looked at as anything more than a minor work from a great artist.
As many such legends reach the twilight of their careers, it is fascinating to watch their creative cycles wax and wane. Bob Dylan, lost for decades at a time, is now in a creative renaissance while Bruce Springsteen has returned from a "disappointing" 1990s to finish this decade more popular than ever. But Neil Young has been more difficult to pin down. While his plum decades are the '60s, '70s and '90s, he is also the most reluctant to age into a pencil-stashed crooner or Super Bowl playing ham. It could be argued that Young has not created a work as indelible as Love and Theft or The Ghost of Tom Joad since 1979, but he has also penned some beautiful songs since then. When a few of the live discs from the Archives debuted as standalone releases recently (shows from 1968 and 1971), Young received his best reviews in years. For Young's fans, now is the time for a journey through the past. Just don't tell that to the cranky Young who, on Fork in the Road, dares us to "download this/ It sounds like shit."
by David Harris