Issue date: 4/19/02 Section: Features

Admittedly, the cover of this album sucks. The title is also among the stupidest of names. Yet, when you put out albums like 1979's Rust Never Sleeps or 1993's Unplugged, I think you can be forgiven a bad title. More to the point, we can forgive Neil Young for anything he wants simply due to the fact that he is Neil Young.

Neil Young began his career more than 30 years ago, and since then he has done perhaps more for popular music than anyone else. Grunge, alt-country, folk and straight-ahead rock 'n' roll owe huge debts to Young. Pearl Jam's fight against TicketMaster echoes the Godfather of Grunge's own battle with Geffen Records, who accused him of making albums that were not Neil Young enough. Are You Passionate? finds the perfect balance between the experimentation that characterized the '80s for Young and the musical honesty of his infallible '70s.

Listening to this album leaves me inexplicably dumbstruck. I say inexplicably because better songs have come from Neil's pen. "You're My Girl" takes the prize for cheesiness until you realize that it is a love song from father to daughter, perhaps a college bound daughter. The lyrics speak of the thoughts that perhaps crossed our own parents' minds as they watched us head for central Arkansas with scarcely a look over our shoulders.

"Mr. Disappointment" begins with gruff vocals asking, "Where did all the feelings go? / What about that happy glow? / Was that so long ago / When we were first in love?" As the chorus hits, the gruff accusations become a quivering falsetto, taking the blame but hopeful that this disappointment "might be the last."

The next song, "Differently," picks up where the last left off, and the lyrics lament that things should have gone differently, but also recognize that plenty of time remains to change the past.

I delight in listening to this album because the songs deliberately provide a window into their writer's heart. Songs like "Quit (Don't Say You Love Me?)" contains no lyrical gems, but this tune, along with others like it, allow the listener to make a personal connection with Neil.

"Let's Roll" shows the same heart-on-the-sleeve mentality. Eat your heart out, Alan Jackson. This tribute song approaches the 9/11 tragedy from a new angle. The chorus and title for the song are the last known words of United Flight 93's hero Tom Burnett. Sure, "We're going after Satan / on the wings of a dove" is a ridiculous line, but it still beats "Did you dust off your Bible? / Did you pick up your gun?" from the ubiquitous Jackson tune.

Continued...

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