Bw’s Blog

It’s really nice to see someone who can keep on making music at any age, and I’m sure that Neil Young will keep on going until it’s no longer possible. Although his new album, Fork In The Road, doesn’t have the same magic as previous albums, it still kicks ass.

One of the first things I noticed on this album is the natural spaceyness of the recordings. Particularily on the guitar sound, you can really hear the room that the band was recorded in. This is a nice effect, and it sounds far better than most artificial reverberation. A similar technique was used on Harvest, and I’m sure most of his other albums as well.

The first two songs didn’t do too much for me, but number 3, Just Singing A Song, is a good indicator that Neil still has it in him. The guitar playing is typical Young, and the song starts off with a beautiful little guitar solo before he brings in the lyrics. The vocal melody is one that competes with any other I’ve ever heard from him  - pure greatness.

Next up is Johnny Magic, and it gives us a bit of aggression. This song is fairly fast-paced and it’s one of the heavier songs on the album. The vocals are okay, but they’re not too inspiring. Light A Candle is the softest song on the album, and it reminds me of the acoustic performances of old. It includes a moving vocal melody and some sweet-sounding slide guitar.

The title-track isn’t all that great. As the longest song on the album, I expected it to be worth it’s length…it isn’t. The song seems to go on too long, and it’s quite uninteresting all the way through. Oh well…

Overall, there were some definite dull moments but there were also some great new songs. Is this another classic album from Neil Young? I would say no, but it’s still pretty cool.

BW.