Young's Latest Wanders

The tracks on Neil Young’s new Chrome Dreams II alternate between “bursts of earnest declarations” and “epic, slow-burn rockers”—including the 18-minute “Ordinary People,” says the Boston Globe. Some show the bravado of last year’s barnstormer, Living With War, but Shakey sometimes ends up “merely simplistic.”

The first Chrome Dreams never came to pass, ditched in 1977. The quasi-sequel concerns “the scary game of hide-and-seek that is our search for faith,” says the New York Daily News: Each song is plagued by doubt until hope wins. It’s a comfortable formula for the Farm Aid-er, but Chrome II isn't “a major Young work.” (More Neil Young stories.)