FEATURE:
Second Spin
Neil Young - Fork in the Road
___________
AS he has released…
forty studio albums (either solo or with Crazy Horse), it is evitable that there are some Neil Young albums that are overlooked or not up to his gold standard. There are albums of his that I feel did not get the huge reviews it deserved or is not played as much as it should be. That can be said of 2009’s Fork in the Road. His twenty-ninth studio album, I think that it is one of his best ‘later career’ releases. I am going to bring in some contrasting reviews for the album. Whilst it did get positive feedback, some were a bit more mixed. I feel there should be reappraisal of Fork in the Road. It is a really strong album with numerous highlights. Before coming to a couple of reviews, Wikipedia provide some background and information regarding Fork in the Road:
“The album was inspired by Young's Lincoln Continental that had been retooled to run entirely on alternative energy, and Young's background with the Lincvolt project he has been working on alongside mechanic Jonathan Goodwin. The project has been to develop a viable electric energy power system for automobiles. Young's own 1959 Lincoln Continental will serve as their completed prototype. A documentary produced by Larry Johnson followed the electric car in its first long-distance trip to Washington, DC”.
When Worlds Collide is a fantastic opening track. The quality doesn’t really decrease at all. It is a consistently strong album that warrants repeated listen. I do feel that some have ignored the album or not held it in the same esteem as other Young albums.
There have been a lot of positive reviews for it. Saying that, there have been some mixed ones. Fork in the Road is one that is worthy of new investigation. In their review, this is what The Guardian had to say about Fork in the Road:
“He is fierier and funnier than ever, his latest amateur-style videos for new album Fork in the Road an unexpected joy, featuring Young lip-synching in the back of a limo dressed as a banker and him driving his beloved Lincoln Convertible, the sun bleaching the camera, a curly-coated dog behind him.
So, there is much to admire. I just wish I liked his music more. But that keening voice, those Godspell backing harmonies have never done anything other than turn up my tinnitus and make my teeth ache.
The guitar sound is always fantastic - gutsy, driving, grungy - but the drumming is truly terrible and as for the words ... to call them lyrics seems to give too much formal weight. They're more like stream-of-consciousness notes, to be licked into proper shape at a later date.
The subject of this album is - sorry, listeners - his car, the Lincvolt, a 1959 white Lincoln convertible that Young is in the process of having converted to eco-friendly fuels. "The awesome power of electricite-e-e/Stored for you on a giant battere-e-e/She runs so quiet ..." he sings on "Fuel Line", a right-on version of Jeremy Clarkson. There are a few anti-war asides and more about the credit crunch, though nothing goes any deeper than "Cough up the Bucks"' wondering, "Where did all the money go?/ Where did all the cash flow?/ Where did all the revenue sweep?"
Only the pretty "Light a Candle" and the title track itself go anywhere. The rest is tossed away, the sound of a massive talent revving on the spot without ever getting out of first gear”.
I definitely feel Fork in the Road is one of the most interesting Neil Young albums in terms of its concept and inspiration. Maybe there are one or two slightly weaker tracks on the album. Most are really solid and have plenty of nuance. In their assessment, AllMusic remarked the following:
“It somehow is fitting that Fork in the Road arrived in stores a week after President Barack Obama announced his bail-out plan for the American automobile industry: it's Neil Young's one-man campaign to remind everybody what cars used to mean and what they should be again. Neil always has had a soft spot for cars -- he drove a hearse from Toronto to Los Angeles, immortalizing the vehicle in "Long May You Run" -- so this album-length motor manifesto couldn't be called unexpected, nor could its palpable, ever-flowing undercurrent of nostalgia be a surprise for a man who owns a toy train company. Plus, romanticizing the classic years of Detroit is natural; those big boats were gorgeous, so unlike the colorless, characterless sedans that rule the road these days. Neil knows this and knows that dependence on oil is crippling the culture, not to mention the environment, and is enough of an evangelist to cobble together his own green machine, putting an electric engine in a 1959 Lincoln Continental, driving the car to Washington and writing a whole album about the vehicle and its downtrodden times.
Fittingly, Fork in the Road is like his Lincvolt: it has a new engine in an old body, so it has all of the classic contours but runs a little differently. The Lincvolt might be smooth and efficient, but Fork in the Road is charmingly clunky, a side effect of its quick creation and Young's hard-headedness. Neil might be writing records as quickly as a blogger these days but musically he's stuck in the past, never letting go of his chunky Les Paul and candied folk harmonies, embracing his status as an old crank so enthusiastically he happily presents himself as a crazy old coot on the album's cover. At times, he certainly does sound like the resident codger, snarling about the fading economy and how everybody's been downsized, good naturedly sneering "big rock star/my sales have tanked/I still got you/thanks" on the title track. Despite the undercurrent of auto nostalgia here, Young isn't living in the past and he's keenly aware of the present. This blend of dreamy thoughts of yesteryear, spitting fury over the present, and planning for the future gives Fork in the Road a bit of a kick that propels it through a few songs that aren't much more than a garage groove, but the whole thing benefits from its messiness; the loose ends make it feel alive”.
If you have not heard Fork in the Road, go and give it a listen and send some time with it. Young’s twenty-ninth studio album is a rich listen, Young's vocal performance on Fork in the Road was nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance at the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010. I have been listening to it a bit over the past few days and have been hooked. Even if you are not a Neil Young fan, you will find something in Fork in the Road to enjoy. It has been great diving into…
A terrific album.