REVIEW -- NEIL YOUNG: FORK IN THE ROAD

Neil Young

Fork in the Road

(Reprise)

Neil Young has made some weird records – Trans’ robo-slop, the ersatz rockabilly of Everybody’s Rockin’. So Fork in the Road – which is all about his 1959 Lincoln Continental hybrid – isn’t totally out there. But it is weird. And filled with the same nondescript sludgy riffs that form the basis of most of his albums over the past decade, it isn’t all that memorable either. This is a road record, but a new-age road record. “Taking a trip across the U.S.A./Gonna see a lotta people along the way,” Young sings on opener “When Worlds Collide.” But Fork in the Road isn’t so much about traveling our wide-open nation as it is about how freakin’ awesome Young’s custom ride is. “Fill ’er up!” goes the chorus of “Fuel Line.” “Cough up the bucks” he intones in another song (about your gas-hogging car, not his). And “Just Singing a Song” is followed by “won’t change the world.” Apparently you have to drive a vintage vehicle that’s environmentally friendly too. --Michael Gallucci