Barn

It's amazing how Neil Young and Crazy Horse's collaborations can seem like a lost moment in time, captured in amber. You feel it right away on their 19th studio album with opener "Song of the Seasons": that evocative harmonica, Nils Lofgren's sentimental accordion, Young's voice wavering on the last half of the line "We're so together in the way that we feel/ That we could wind up anywhere;" it's as easy as a worn suede glove and nostalgic for a moment you don't even know. Then again, that moment might just be the classic Harvest Moon, on which this sweet song (all about connection, a running theme on Barn) would have been right at home. It helps that Young goes all in. He has played with two-thirds of the band since 1968, and the album was recorded in circumstances about as romantic as you can get: "under a full moon, in a restored off-grid 19th century barn high up in the Rockies," the press release details. Goosed by ragged guitar, "Heading West" gets dreamy about childhood and how your parents' decisions change you. "Shape of You" is an out-and-out love song ("You changed my life for the better/ Wore my love like your favorite sweater"), an inspired blues roll warmed up by Billy Talbot's lumbering bass and Young's right-hand piano shimmy. Ditto "Tumblin' Thru the Years," which sounds more like it's about the band's connection than any romantic love, and is just about as pretty as anything Young's ever written. It's not all mellow and cozy, though. "Human Race" is a spitfire stomp, complete with searing guitar solo, and you can feel the frustration of Young, who has been warning of climate change for decades: "Today no one cares/ Tomorrow no one shares/ Because they all will be gone but the children." (A ghostly chorus drifts in to chant the line "Children of the fires and floods.") The band adopts a blues rag to chronicle Western dependence on petroleum for "Change Ain't Never Gonna." As Young looks both backward and forward at the same time, he's aware it sounds familiar—but hopeful it might finally sink in. "I been singin' this way for so long/ Riding through this storm," he reminds us on "Welcome Back," later warning: "Before the world has closed us in/ We might still allow for changes to be made ... Before your computer turns on you." "Don't Forget Love" closes the album on a note of genuine hope, Young reassuringly singing, "When you're takin' and you could be givin'/ When you're dyin' and you could be livin'/ Don't forget love." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz