Allié aux Chrome Hearts, l’indétrônable vétéran canadien n’a pas dit son dernier mot sur “Second Song”.
The rest for a warrior? Very little, if you ask him. At 80, more than one rock legend would be content with a peaceful retirement, comfortable in a rocking chair, emerging from silence only for remastered reissues. Unquestionably untouchable in his art, delivering a new album each year, Neil Young belongs to the ranks of insatiable creators who, from Paul McCartney to Sparks, continue touring and crafting new songs that still stand up to scrutiny, even after five decades of a career.
During the summer of 2025, his dazzling show at the Adidas Arena made it abundantly clear that inspiration had not left him and that he still knew how to unleash thunder — the wild horse of Crazy Horse continues to gallop on the horizon. On Second Song, his fiftieth studio album, we find again the same band that accompanied him that evening, the Chrome Hearts, which includes part of Promise of the Real (the outfit that has played with him since the 2010s), including one of Willie Nelson’s sons, and the elder statesman of keyboards Spooner Oldham (who has played with Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Cat Power…).
The voice sometimes trembles
Of the seven tracks, five are newly recorded and two date from the 1960s, Casting Me Away from You and I’ll Love You Forever, two hidden treasures that the Loner has wisely pulled from his drawers. The whole project was produced under the guidance of Lou Adler, in Malibu, at Rick Rubin’s studio. “Soon I Might Be Going” warns the songwriter in the poignant Soon I Might Be Going, one of his new titles, where a shredded electric guitar makes an appearance, counterbalancing the acoustic guitars that predominate. An expansive piece that stretches for eight minutes without a dull moment, just like the sublime Day after Day, a seven-minute ballad about the passage of time where you can hear distant soft choirs and a few refined piano notes. These two elements take center stage on the following track, Earth Girl, a simple and modest love song. His voice sometimes trembles, but it doesn’t matter: there is only Neil Young to sing without any mawkishness “You are the light of my life, like the river that travels through my heart”. The compliment is returned to him with as much affection as admiration.
Second Song (Reprise/Warner Records). Release on September 18.
