Neil Young: Big Change Is Coming

Neil Young works in strange ways. That might well go without saying, but it deserves repeating if only because, with the release of a brand-new song with a novel lineup of musicians, the inscrutable singer/songwriter has once more tossed a sharp curveball.

"big change is coming" (no caps intentional) may simultaneously delight and confound his loyal fanbase as well as the public at large (see his withdrawal from Spotify in 2022 and, a year later, an open letter blasting the concert industry). Friday, Jan 17, 2025, saw the digital-only release of the new recording, credited to 'neil young and the chrome hearts' (again, all lower case).

This particular ensemble made its debut in a live setting at a Farm Aid concert back in September of 2024 and picked up right where it left off later that same month for three dates at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. All this activity occurred in the wake of Young canceling summer tour dates with Crazy Horse due to an unspecified illness in that band.

The chrome hearts lineup consists of Willie Nelson's son Micah Nelson on guitar (late of The Horse), bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo (from Promise of the Real, Young's backing band circa Noise & Flowers (Reprise, 2022), plus keyboardist Spooner Oldham (veteran of Muscle Shoals and Memphis studio work, besides prior collaborations with Bob Dylan and Young himself).

Co-produced by the latter and Lou Adler—the highly-esteemed supervisor of Carole King's Tapestry (Ode, 1971) who also collaborated on Young's full-length work Before and After (Reprise, 2023)—the track was engineered and mixed by John Hanlon, then mastered by Chris Bellman; the latter two are regular members of the idiosyncratic Canadian's technical team, so it is little wonder it resounds so fully and deeply, albeit without great musical ingenuity.

At least on stage so far, Young and the hearts have taken a slightly more genteel approach to interpreting vintage selections and deep cuts from the inveterate iconoclast's discography. But the occasional tremors of distorted high-volume emanating from those aforementioned performances were a precursor to the first formal recording of the group.

No question about it, "big change is coming" bludgeons from start to finish. The purposefully heavy-handed attack—the main tool of which may be the famed 'Old Black' guitar of Young's pictured on its 'sleeve'—seems designed to drive home the theme of its simplistic lyrics. Given the timing of its release, it is difficult if not impossible to miss the topicality of the sentiment, accurately summed up in its title (also known as 'big change' which may be a reference to the great wealth of the so-called '1%'). Wisely, given our fractured cultural landscape, the composer adheres to the 'less said the better' premise.

In that respect, it is a far cry from "Ohio," the discerning set of observations Neil Young wrote, then recorded with Crosby Stills & Nash in the wake of four students dying at the hands of the National Guard at Kent State University in May of 1970. 2025's composition and performance are more like an inner conversation murmured aloud, the off-the-cuff nature of which is directly in line with the co- founder of Buffalo Springfield's recent studio outings such as Colorado (Reprise, 2019) and Barn (Reprise, 2021).

Like those efforts, this slightly less than three minutes is spontaneous to a fault and lacking in genuinely assiduous craftsmanship. It is nevertheless an honest reaction to uncertain times, albeit a knee-jerk response of sorts: Young and company are not overstating the obvious here in any respect, but the unrelenting plod of the quintet might well be interpreted as a gesture of staunch resolve amid socio-political turmoil.

After all, its author is the same artist who issued an album titled Living With War (Reprise Records, 2006). An LP including a fervent original called "Let's Impeach The President," that song title became the name for a CSNY reunion tour (and dutifully documented the jaunt on film in case anyone missed the point).

The newly-assembled five-piece unit is fully in keeping with Neil Young's predilection for working quickly, as is at least tentative announcement of a full-length album issued within weeks after this teaser. Then again, this iconoclastic artist has been known to change his mind in whirlwind fashion—remember the abrupt 1976 dissolution of the Stills/Young Band?—and there is really no knowing with certainty how this latest chapter in his career unfolds.

But that in itself is wholly in keeping with "big change is coming." In the end, this number can easily be heard as a self-referential ode to Neil Young's mercurial creativity, not to mention his artistic durability. In the latter regard, it is well to keep in mind the name 'the chrome hearts' takes its name from the bandleader's song "Long May You Run."

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