Neil Young's new album, "Le Noise," is a medley of confusion, angst and more self−aware lyrics than his listeners have heard from him in years.
Working for the first time with Daniel Lanois, a producer behind a number of albums by both U2 and Bob Dylan, Young lends a unique sound to even his distinctive drawling vowels and clawhammer acoustic guitar. As Lanois told NPR, there is "just a man on a stool and me doing a nice job on the recording."
Neil Young has had a long and fruitful career, releasing records regularly for over 40 years. While the subject matter and style of his music may have changed slightly from album to album, Young manages to always add a unique touch to his songs that makes them easily accessible for each generation.
"Le Noise's" opening song, "Walk with Me," is an in−your−face opener based around strong distorted electric guitar. Young's voice echoes over it throughout.
The guitar used in the recording of this album played a large role in the album's sound quality; Lanois gave Young an electric/acoustic guitar that he had been perfecting the sound of for years. The guitar's sound is definitely noticeable and interesting, adding to every song. Even the album's ballad, "Love and War," gets a hint of ferocity from the guitar's distinctiveness, complementing the underlying poignancy and lucidity that Young does so well.
"Le Noise" is concerned mostly with pain and loss, with some songs acting as introspective looks back through Young's own life. The recent deaths of Young's steel guitarist and friend Ben Keith in Young's home, and of filmmaker Larry Johnson, who worked with Young on his film "Journey Through the Past" (1974), evidently stirred up strong emotions in Young.
These emotions seem to have inspired songs such as "Angry World," a contradictory, somewhat pessimistic view of the world as a whole, set over jarring chords. With lyrics such as, "Some see life as hope eternal/Some see life as a business plan/Some wish some would go to hell's inferno/For screwing with their life in freedom land," Young wastes no time in getting to the root of the issues he wants to sing about.
"Hitchhiker" takes a complete U−turn, providing a little more variation to the themes of the album. While it is a rumination on the various drugs Young has indulged in, it is also a statement on the difficulties of living on the road and the losses one experiences living that lifestyle.
Like all of Young's music, the songs on "Le Noise" are often draining to listen to if one pays careful attention to the lyrics, since the artist deals nonstop with heavy political and social issues.
"Hitchhiker" succeeds in providing a welcome break from these topics, with lyrics like, "You didn't see me in Toronto/When I first tried out some hash/Smoked some then and I'll do it again."
"Hitchhiker" was actually written at the same time as "Harvest Moon" (1992) but still seems to fit with the emotional turmoil present in every song on "Le Noise."
"Love and War" and "Peaceful Valley Boulevard," meanwhile, are slower and more emotional.
The former chronicles Young's confusion with his possible misunderstanding of the subject matters he has been singing about for years. The latter is a mournful, gloomy ballad with a chorus of questions to which Young has no answers.
The song hits home hard with the final line, "Politicians gathered for a summit/And came away with nothing to decide/Storms thundered on, his tears of falling rain/A child was born and wondered why."
While "Le Noise" has a different sound than that which longtime fans might expect, the album is an enjoyable deluge of frenetic, distorted guitar and Young's unmistakable drawl, resonating over a joyful frenzy of pain and clarity.
