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Neil Young - Fork In The Road Audio CD

A fair review of the Neil Young "Fork In The Road" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Neil Young reviews here, or go back to the Neil Young tabs.

Neil Young Band: Neil Young
Title: Fork In The Road
Rating:
Release Date: 2009-04-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: When Worlds Collide 2: Fuel Line 3: Just Singing A Song 4: Johnny Magic 5: Cough Up The Bucks 6: Behind The Wheel 7: Off The Road 8: Hit The Road 9: Light A Candle 10: Fork In The Road

Save your money
" Although I am a die-hard Neil fan and I buy everything he puts out, this "work" is nearly unlistenable especially when he has so much other fabulous music. This is without a doubt one of Neil's most embarrassing efforts, ranking even lower than "Living With War" and "Landing On Water. Buy this one only if you insist on having a complete Neil Young collection. I promise you will only listen to it once.


Free World Rockin'
Still; rockin' good music, strangely enough, especially if you are listening in a car. Very "transportation" oriented.


Neil at his best
Sometimes they are great and sometimes they are rubbish. As a lifelong Neil Young fan (since 1980), I always wait in trepidation for a new album. Thankfully this time, it is great. Unlike the previous album Chrome Dreams II (which was awful) this has 10 songs which all stand up individually with decent melodies, lyrics and guitar rifts. Sometimes you cant tell one NY song from an other (Greendale). The sound is very much like Cortez or Like a hurricane, that sort of electric sound your familiar with. The only acoustic song is Light a candle which is great little song. My personal favourites are Just singing a song, fork in the road and light a candle. This is definitley his best album for me since Freedom 20 years ago. Praire wind and Harvest moon weren't too bad either. If your a real Neil Young fan you will really like this album, if your a casual Neil Young fan you may also like it.


good but not a classic
Well it's generally about driving and some of the songs are ideal for that long drive. A driving album - kind of. But it is a mixed bag of songs, some are standout (Just Singing a Song was probably my favourite) but there are one or two others that are not that memorable.

While I enjoy Neil Young's work, I am an occasional buyer, not a fanatic so I cannot put this into context of his other works, all I can do is say how much I enjoyed this album as a standalone piece of music. And I did enjoy it, it is no classic but it has high points which make good use of Young's easily recognisable vocals and there are tracks which have much softer vocals which means they tend to blend into gentle background music. This is certainly no dud and I'm glad I bought it, but I feel with a couple of better songs this could easily have been a classic.


Better Than Reactor And Then Some
But this is nearly 30 years later, and what was cutting edge then is cliche today. If Fork In The Road had been released instead of Reactor back in the early 80's, it would have been hailed as a masterpiece, a worthy sequel to the grunge-fest of Rust Never Sleeps. Still, not all is wrong with predictability.

Before Young begins singing on each song, you can often anticipate the melody line he'll use -- they're standard Young melodies that Neil is not about to ditch any more. He's recylced this music so often that there's a considerable element of familiarity in most Young fans before they've even listened to the first track. This has its pros and cons. If you fight it, it's a con. Neil won't change at this stage. If you accept it, it can be a pro. The material falls within stylistic expectations and the only question left is: Does Neil retread the same old ground with quality songs, or is he merely going through the motions? This time around, it's the first. You may have heard Fork in countless variations on previous Young albums, and yet his old tricks are still effective when done well and given a twist. Of course, this also adds to the rushed and tossed off feel of some of the tunes, which can bring a certain charm to Neil's work. And that's frequently been the feeling with many of his tunes, even his classic ones.

The following albums are strongly alluded to: Reactor, Rust Never Sleeps, On The Beach, Comes A Time, and a touch of Hawks And Doves and the more shadowy side of Stars And Bars. Not that Fork is as brilliant as some of these, it's just that they are the source from which Neil borrows to make Fork (blatantly sometimes). Quite a different concept altogether.

There is, however, one major difference or addition to the old recipe. This is a grungy and yet LITE album that, as many reviewers noted, would be cool for cruisin' around. While it may have all the grunge you want, it has little of the grunge darkness (unlike Greendale). And that's an interesting combo which permeates the entire album, making it snappy, foot-tapping, and well-crafted, if undemanding as well. Then there's some clever riffing and imaginative and well chosen color changes within most songs (in fact, the title track is probably the lamest of the heavy ones). And to top it off, the production is wholly unassuming, allowing the raw vigor of the band to come through -- simple, hard-hitting, and forward-looking. All this makes Fork relevant and Neil's most pleasant surprise in decades.

I disliked the album initially (the rather obvious lyrics remain the my biggest complaint). I then found myself putting it on because it was both good company and a plain fun listen. With only one skippable song (a rare feat these days), the excessively derivative Off The Road, Fork In The Road may end up becoming Neil's swan-song.


You can see a complete list of all Neil Young discography, or go back to the Neil Young tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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