Customer Reviews

Are You Passionate?

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This album is an absolute gem. It is not only my favorite Young album, but my favorite cd in my collection (about 400). It's hard to put into words what makes this album work so well. It is powerful and flows with feeling from the get-go. Neil's saxophone-style lead guitar playing is fantastic. The only drawback -- the song "Let's Roll" isn't Neil's best work, but it actually compliments the rest of the album with the feeling it envokes.

This album is a case of being "worth more than the sum of its parts." Taken individually, each song seems a bit lost after hearing the entire album. I usually listen to the whole cd from start to finish, and I'm always left satisfied. Young was definitely inspired when he created this album -- and it will leave you inspired as well.

Neil young has made huge contributions to the world of rock&roll, created some of the greatest rock albums of all time (zuma, ragged glory, everbody knows, etc.) and his acoustic country stuff is great too. in fact, i was pleased when he started the decade with Silver and Gold, a great(albiet belated) follow up to Harvest Moon. But lets face it, Neil was meant to play with Crazy Horse, not Booker T. and the MGs. Booker's group is professional, they know their stuff, but they don't seem to have the fire Crazy Horse has.
The effects of all this proffesionalism definitly mellowed the album, and aside from Goin Home, which is a great rocker that Crazy Horse(thankfully) performed, and they did a tremendus job of it.
Fortunatley, AYP's poor quality doesn't seem to phase himm, as Greendale is showing Neil getting back on the right track.
Bottom line, keep Booker T. and the MG's away from Neil and give him Crazy Horse and he'll be shooting out 5 star albums in no time

In 1967 Jimi Hendrix wowed Buffalo Springfield's Neil Young. Neil mimics the H-man's flamboyant guitar improvisation with some pretty fancy tooth pickin' of his own in the 'Weld' video; he included Jimi's 'Star Spangled Banner' in the 'Rust Never Sleeps' film, and even offered up his own psychedelic version of the national anthem as a 'Prisoners of Rock and Roll' coda on 'Year of the Horse'. Shoot, Neil's done everything but pour lighter fluid on 'Old Black' and light 'er up! So is 'Are You Passionate' a mock-up to the Hendrix Experience debut LP, 'Are You Experienced'? Are You Crazy?

Let's hope that wasn't Neil's intent, even subliminally, because it just doesn't cut it. This album is funky, but undistinguished, and funky isn't what Neil does best anyway. Funky is done well by Booker T. Jones and Donald 'Duck' Dunn, who accompany Young here, but the wrong partner is leading the dance. Neil's guitar has a big, resonant sound throughout much of the disc, with little of the trademark distortion and feedback that often makes for a good, biting Young tune. You might call some of these numbers slick. There are even backing vocals here that are reminisient of Motown art.

The album pretty much breaks down to two sets of four songs each that open and close the album, and that sound pretty much the same. The best of the bunch are the opener, 'You're My Girl', offering standard pop fare, and the closer, 'She's a Healer' a love poem to Neil's wife that is beautiful lyrically and possessing an infectious beat and bold guitar lines.

Between these 4-song bookends are two numbers that are much heavier in their sound and character. 'Let's Roll' is a dark anthem, 'Ohio' in 9-11 time. It's surprising Young chose to immortalize Flight 93's rebellion against becoming a tool of destruction since Young felt some guilt over profiting from the Kent State Four's tragic deaths. Even the rush job of recording and releasing 'Let's Roll' on the heals of the event that spawned it is errily reminiscient of the production of 'Ohio'.

The other song of note is easily the best song in the set, 'Goin' Home', another Young ode to Native Americans ala 'Pocahontas' or 'Cortez the Killer' (this time we villanize General Custer rather than the wicked conquistador, however). This song is right up there with all the best Neil has produced, and at over 8 1/2 minutes nearly makes the CD a desirable purchase. It features great lyrics and a simply unrelenting war dance beat. Each set of verses is followed by excellent extended guitar solos by Young. It is worthy of many repeat listens, and soon becomes a sing-a-long. For a while Young offered a live performance version of the song on a 'Are You Passionate' web site that was just as stirring as this studio take.

There are many Neil Young CD's worth owning before picking this one off the shelf. Even for the completist, the only real gain is in owning a copy of 'Goin' Home'. Young better not release that video, or he'll render this CD obsolete.

Neil Young has always been at his best when chewing up cliches. The two halves of his great strength as a songwriter, aside from the great tunes, were: first, his ability to take an old phrase and turn it upside down, to draw meaning from words that had run out of ink; second, his ability to make real, true art with his creative invention and reworking of symbols.

It's telling, then, that only three songs here features such clever use of words: the title track, the killer "Goin' Home", and the final track, "She's a Healer". When Neil sings, "Are you negative in a world that never stops... turning on you," the listener's mind hangs on every word (stops ... turning ... on you) as we round the syntactic bend and realize what he's saying. "Goin' Home" features lyrics are impressive even when compared to the rest of Young's work: "Elusively, she cut the phone / and jumped from cell to cell / really looking remarkable / -- and obviously doing well", the slant rhymes all work and grab the listener by the throat. "She's a Healer" features very evocative turns of phrase that hint at something unsaid, while using a cliche ("Let the good times roll") in a very interesting way. It features a groaner of a rhyme (that ends with "Without her, I'd be toast").

Word choice is only craft, though; what about the art? The majority of the songs here are meditations on getting old, on losing children, loves, and friends, and the majority have a very limited use of symbolism. Aside from "Goin' Home", everything means exactly what it says and nothing more. At least lyrically speaking, that means it's just not great art.

Well, when art is gone, there's always meaning, right? Well, sadly, AYP? features a shaky-sounding Shakey mouthing plagiarized sentiments a younger Young might well have mocked. (The preceding wordplay is nobody's idea of craft, by the way.) The martial middle section of the title track reveals the speaker to be a fighter pilot, who adds: "... I dove into the darkness and I let my missiles fly / And they might be the ones that kept you free." I don't believe any missiles fired since WWII have kept me free, and even WWII is arguable. I am no pacifist, but if anyone can justify this lyric I will be surprised. (Freedom is the fundamental concept of the best Western societies, and this meaningless use of the word is profoundly disappointing -- Neil Young of all people should get it.)

And then there's "Let's Roll". This insult to heroism is based around an urban legend: Todd Beamer never talked to his wife, though she implied he did in many interviews, and we don't know for sure he said "let's roll", though it was a phrase that he (and many people I knew before 9/11) used often. For the first two verses, the only sin the song commits is lyrical banality. But the third verse, which starts promisingly ("You've gotta turn on evil / when it's coming after you"), ends with a cheap rhyme that can be read to endorse terrible statecraft (read: Iraq et al). Then the fourth verse comes along and utterly destroys any pretenses of quality the song had. "Let's roll for freedom / Let's roll for love / Goin' after Satan / On the wings of a dove / Let's roll for justice / Let's roll for truth / Let's not let our children grow up / Fearful in their youth." What connection does freedom -- political, personal, or otherwise -- have to 9/11, other than that baleful day's serving as an excuse to take away American freedoms, won by blood and toil and sacrifice? What does "Let's roll for love" mean here? Are al Qaeda really Satan or his minions? How can we go after them on the wings of a dove -- is Neil suggesting amnesty or pardons? What does he mean here by truth and justice? I don't believe that Neil means the dark and horrible things that can be interpreted by his words in this last verse; I just believe that the lyrics are sloppy, meaningless, and damaging.

Moving from the offensive to the merely sappy, the rest of the tracks are mostly pleasant and empty. The first track, "You're My Girl", is the high point of these: it may be a sentimental call to his daughter, but the verses (especially the first) are creative and it doesn't feel cliched. "She's a Healer" has a very interesting idea at its core, but I don't know what it is. "Mr. Disappointment" is decent, too. "Differently", "Don't Say You Love Me", and the three songs before "She's a Healer" all say very little with very little.

Should you buy this album? No, unless it's cheap. "Goin' Home" and "She's a Healer" are essential, the title track is close, and the first four tracks are listenable, but it's just not a great or even average Neil Young album. Get it used or borrow it from a friend.

I love this cd and would recommend it to anyone who likes groovin' melodies. I am not a real big NY fan but this cd has changed my mind. I will look for more great music from this legend.

This is again another different style for NY.Some beutiful soulfull ballads played with some great guitar riffs.Also some good NY semi rockers. Though only 75% of the music is up to Neils usual standard. Thats still over 45 mins of great music.One thing though the lead guitars have some serious induced distortion, that although sounds great, had me swapping tubes on my monoblock amps to see if the tubes were breaking down.For music content I give it 85% and recording 89%.

I really like this album though like some other listeners it took a while to grow on me. It's perfect late night- I had to listen to it before crashing for the night on several camping trips this summer. Basically I like all the tracks, especially "Mr Disappointment" "Differently" "Goin Home" "Dont say you love me" "She's a healer" and the title track, which is haunting. Overall laid back but very worthwhile.

Not even as good as "This Note's for You." A Neil Young album should not be this boring.

Neil should have asked himself that question before churning this one out. Neil has recorded with a lot of different people but Booker T and the MG's just isn't right. I give it two stars for the song "Goin Home" which is just truly incredible. And I think he did that one with Crazy Horse. IT's a blast straight off of the Zuma era. The rest of this CD is so incredibly lame.

I can't understand the bad reviews of this CD. EVERY song is great!!!! Solid songwriting; another classic from NY. I have every NY CD and I probably listen to this more than any other. Go buy this now, you won't be sorry!!!