Once able to pen tender songs and sprawling rockers of comparable emotional weight, Young is now struggling with his muse and too many times crosses the line into clumsy analogy and sappy schmaltz.
Sadly, the album's sole rock song, I Want To Drive My Car, is a throwaway number, suggesting that once-bounteous cupboard is similarly bare.
• Neil Young. Storytone. Warner Music.
• Two stars (out of five)
Single download: Who's Gonna Stand Up?
For those who like: The idea of Young tackling the American Songbook
- Jeff Harford
