Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Woke slogans welded to incompetent grunge: Neil Young’s Colorado reviewed

Young made some of the best albums in the history of rock music – but that was when he had a sense of perspective and humour

issue 09 November 2019

Grade: B-

Horribly woke boilerplate slogans welded inexpertly to the usual incompetent Crazy Horse grunge. Young and his pick-up band of now 50-years standing usually work well together — as on Zuma, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and even Ragged Glory. But that’s when there were a few decent songs in the mix, stuffed with compelling ideas and interesting imagery. That sort of thing is in terribly short supply here. ‘She Showed Me Love’ staggers along for an unendurable 13 minutes: ‘I saw old white guys trying to kill mother nature.’ Just old white guys? How about you check out the Indonesian and Brazilian loggers for a second? Then the tuneless thud of ‘Shut it Down’ — ‘shut the whole system down!’ What, the system that made your adopted country the most successful in the history of the world and gave you more money than you know what to do with?

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in