Reviews > CDs

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill

Reprise

Neil Young reportedly recently gave up drinking and smoking grass. Here, we find him reunited with his primal rock band and wrestling to find his voice anew. Psychedelic Pill is a fusion of Neil Youngs: the acoustic folksinger, the electric wrencher, the flanged-out Trans-man, the coast range balladeer. The opening track, “Driftin’ Back,” moves from solo folk to a wistful, 27 minute jam that comes in waves, showering melodic, electric major chord runs—a fresh hybrid of Young’s guitar styles. Like the album, it moves across time, from a ‘60s searcher paying the Maharishi to an aging rocker blocked “like Jesus” by the rock rolled across the cavern door, and then again by the digital format that prevents his rage from radiating effectively enough (as we learn on the album’s other godzillian bookend, “Walk Like a Giant”) to maintain his prominence in the culture. If some of these songs adapt familiar Youngisms (the chorus of “Driftin’ Back” echoes “Hey Hey, My My”’s verse; “Walk Like a Giant” alludes to its groove), Young winks that he knows it. He’s being honest with us here. He’s working with his own sonic palette—and the result, occasionally garage-band loose, is ultimately quite satisfying.