The Hawk

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Entertainment

Young lost the original cut to fire.

The saturation point has been met for Neil Young to surprise anybody with just about anything. Why wouldn't he release a sequel to an album that he never actually released? In the late '70s, Young recorded an album entitled "Chrome Dreams," but it was tragically destroyed in a house fire. All of its final form was lost, including the album artwork. The songs were later scattered onto different albums, including "Rust Never Sleeps" and "American Stars 'n' Bars." Even though these songs added much to their new soundscapes, many believe that "Chrome Dreams" in its original form would have been the strongest album in the Young canon.

Fast forward to 2007. Young has again pushed back an archiving project that has been 20 years in the making for this "island of misfit toys" collection of songs on "Chrome Dreams II." Young has recently taken a straightforward approach to his albums as shown on both the Nashville-inspired "Prairie Wind" or the anti-Bush slander on the haphazardly thrown-together "Living with War."

"Chrome Dreams II," on the other hand, shows a myriad of elements from Young's long career. Not all of the songs were written recently, as in the case of the third track, "Ordinary People," which was written in the 1980s and even performed live.

The song, presented in its full 18-minute form, has Young's gloriously distorted guitar working very passionately with a strong horn section that keeps this song from becoming monotonous between the multiple verses. Compare this, though, to the light- hearted hippie meditation on the album's opening track "Beautiful Bluebird." Young sings, "One morning when I was riding in my old pick-up truck/ A beautiful bluebird came flying down/ My eyes caught the color as he led me down the road/ Dipping and bobbing in the sun." The easy melody and light harmonies of this song have an obvious appeal.

The real curveball from Young comes in the variety found on this album. "Chrome Dreams II" has songs like "Beautiful Bluebird," but there are also songs - like the sloppy foot-stomper "Dirty Old Man." Young sings about "getting hammered" and "battling with the bottle" in this creepy song that is partially saved at the end by some impressive soloing from Young's Les Paul. Later in the album there is another close-to-15-minute song, "No Hidden Path." Young brings up faith on "The Believer," a soulful tune that would fit in fine at Sunday Mass. "Boxcar" is a freight-train anthem with impressive banjo picking. At this point why not? Oh yeah, and the last song features a large choir over a Gospel-esque piano ballad preaching to know "The Way."

Does the album contain good songs? Definitely. Are they on one of the most inconsistent and - undeveloped Neil Young albums? Probably. The good news for the fans is that Young has been supporting this album with a tour where the shows contain many aspects of his career including songs he has not played in a very long time. The tour makes a stop at the Tower Theater on Dec. 10.

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