CHROME DREAMS II - NEIL YOUNG
If Neil Young has been consistently inconsistent throughout his career, he is rarely as all-over-the-map on the same album as he is on “Chrome Dreams II,” named in reference to a 1976 album that never materialized. The humble, sweet strummer “Beautiful Bluebird” conjures the mid-’70s acoustic classic “Comes a Time”; the steel guitar-soaked “Ever After” recalls the pure country of “Old Ways”; and “Ordinary People” and “No Hidden Path” — which together clock in at nearly 33 minutes — offer an electric swirl of “Greendale,” “Broken Arrow” and “After the Gold Rush.” It’s a hodge-podge that presents Neil the fighter, Neil the philosophizer, Neil the husband, Neil the softie and Neil the hippie. “Ordinary People” is the dividing line: a rambling, piano- and horn-encrusted portrait of America sure to be loved and hated equally. Overall though, is the album better than “Prairie Wind” or “Living With War?” Yes.
