Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts – Big Change (Coverart)
A fresh lineup is the best change Neil Young could have made. This is no slight on Crazy Horse, whose work has and remains admirable in its instrumental perfection and innovation. But there was a slump in recent years Young could not shake – and Big Change, with The Chrome Hearts in tow – reinvigorates him. These are instrumentalists who have worked with Young before, Spooner Oldham particularly. It is the fine line between knowing the intricacies of a frontman and exploring a new sound that has not influenced his direction for some time. Big Change is not just a documentation of a country gone wrong but a sound kicking on, fresh and spirited noise rock from a legend of the stage and studio. Electric Neil is back with a roar heard on Like a Hurricane from Chrome Hearts all those years ago.
There is a simplicity to the lyrics which lets the instrumental fury do the talking. Big change can mean anything, but at the time of release, the rage against the Donald Trump inauguration and the start of his presidency is clear to hear. Big change is coming, indeed. Not all change is for the betterment of the world or the self, and those worries begin to show once Big Change starts to crack. Roaring with an anger Young has perfected as of late, through struggles and middling tracks behind him, Big Change is given the punchiness so necessary to its success. There is a sense of amateurishness in the mixing and the playing, a garage rock-like creation where the percussion overwhelms the other instruments. A comment on the all-encompassing feeling of fear? Probably not, likely just a messy mix which, in a roundabout way, does benefit the song and give it that volatile energy.
Head for the hills or go to town, as Young says. Not the most revolutionary call to arms, but a realistic one. What else is there to do other than run or fight? Big Change is calling out for neither and yet appreciates the choice that must be made, and either route is one of suffering. It should not be lost on anyone that this is how many Americans will feel, and that a three-minute rock track where Young heads back to the heady electric sound is not going to change much. But this futility is personal, rather than something the track itself brings. Young and his roster of musicians are the last bastion of pushing against a rather uncertain future, one which certainly holds a loathsome four years for many.
Big Change is, like any strong protest song, not defined by the times. Movements in the right or wrong direction can come from anywhere and the administration at hand just happens to fall in line with his songwriting. It is a similar case for Jarvis Cocker’s Running the World or Elvis Costello’s Tramp Down the Dirt. Any protest song worth its weight is targeted yet abstract. Big Change is very much that, but it also marks a return to rocking form for Young, whose most recent efforts have been protest-worthy but coy in their creation. Big Change blasts all that away and firms up one of the better releases from the legendary songwriter in recent memory. There is change all around, and the bigger it is, the more we should worry.
