Allegra Papera
Online Arts Editor
Neil Young’s album “Peace Trail” intrigues listeners by blatantly addressing current political and social issues, but falls short with its eventually monotonous guitar-playing and irritatingly harsh auto-tuned vocals.
Neil Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Toronto who gained recognition in the United States in the 1960s with the creation of his band Buffalo Springfield. Once launching his solo career, songs such as “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold” earned him lasting fame and recognition.
Read about Young’s life and environmental activism here!
In addition to being a legendary musician, Young is also an environmental activist known to play environmental benefit shows, donate large sums of money to promote a healthy environment, and openly criticize the development of oil sands in Alberta, Canada.
Young uses his new album to intrigue listeners with socially and politically relevant lyrics regarding modern-day maltreatment of Native Americans and environmental issues such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Rather than presenting his music as a form of escapism, Young manages to ground audiences by opening discussion for real issues in today’s society.
Rather than presenting his music as a form of escapism, Young manages to ground audiences by opening discussion for real issues in today’s society.”
While the album’s subject-matter is impressive, each song’s guitar-playing is incredibly reminiscent of the next, making each song predictable and unexciting. Despite Young’s fluid guitar skills being one of his music’s defining qualities, those displayed on “Peace Trail” simply fail to effectively exemplify his skills.
Check out Rolling Stone Magazine’s review on “Peace Trail” here.
Young’s unique and distinctive vocals are well-displayed for the most part of the album, but on a plethora of occasions, an obnoxious and distasteful auto-tune effect is applied to his voice. While this may have only been a failed attempt at achieving a modernized sound, it truly confuses listeners and distracts from any subtly enjoyable musical aspects of the songs.
Young’s criticism of current issues successfully captures the attention of likeminded listeners, as well as those hearing of them for the first time. Despite the album’s intriguing content, music should still be enjoyable to hear, but it utterly disappointed listeners with dull guitar-playing and irritating vocals, ultimately detracting from the memorability of the album and making it more of a failure than a success.
“Peace Trail” was released on December 9 and is available to stream on iTunes and Spotify.
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