Talkin to the Trees

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts

Released on 13/06/2025 by Reprise
Main artists: Neil Young
Genre: Rock

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In spite of cancelling the end of his tour with Crazy Horse in the summer of 2024, Neil Young still made it back into the studio with the Chrome Hearts. What happened, exactly? The Loner reassured his fans on a live: Ralph Molina, Nils Lofgren, and Billy Talbot simply got sick on the road. So no squabbles, apparently. When you’re in your 80’s, sometimes you have to just take it easy.

But when your name is Neil Young, the studio and the stage reel you right back in. In no time at all, he called up the Chrome Hearts, who had already worked with the Canadian on The Monsanto Years ten years prior, and booked a 2025 summer tour across Europe, the United States, and Canada. This supergroup’s average age can be split into two: there’s the young Micah Nelson, son of the legendary Willy, who was also on guitar for the 2023 live album Fuckin’ Up, organist Spooner Oldham, bassist Corey McCormick, and drummer Anthony LoGerfo of Promise of the Real, a Californian band led by Lukas, another son of the patron saint of country music.

Recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studios in Malibu, but sounding far more like a live recording, the ten lightning-fast tracks of Talkin to the Trees clock in at a mere 37 minutes. Such bare bones production is rather baffling, led in part by Lou Adler, the 90-something year old who was also at the helm for the 2023 live album Before and After. Although Neil Young’s songwriting isn’t quite what it used to be, there are still a few solid tracks that harken back to the pure Youngian folk of the 70’s, with his unmistakable voice quavering from the get-go on the highly nostalgic and harmonica-heavy opening track “Family Life.” The album is dedicated to his son Ben, his wife, and the rest of his family.

Yet dissent is still very much on the agenda, like on the more electric “Big Change,” which declares a revolution, and “Let’s Roll Again,” where he takes a jab at Elon Musk. In contrast, there’s the bluesy “Dark Mirage” and its psychedelic choruses, or the droning “Movin Ahead.” Other stand-outs include “Silver Eagle,” which is reminiscent of “Human Highway” (Comes a Time, 1978), as well as the melancholic ballads “Bottle of Love,” “First Fire of Winter,” or even the closing track “Thankful,” where the guitar comes front and center and time seems to stand still. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

Talkin to the Trees

Neil Young

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Family Life