Neil Young’s new album, “The Monsanto Years,” aims to shine a light on the chemical company’s manipulation of our food supply, but the songs are so awful that no one is likely to listen.
A new music review of Neil Young’s new album “The Monsanto Years’ that appeared Friday, June 26 in the New York Daily News says the songs leave on wondering why he didn’t choose a quicker, clearer and simpler way to get his message across. Hadn’t he thought of writing an op-ed?
The new album, the author writes, sinks decent riffs and an earnest message in unlistenably didactic lyrics.
Quoting the article: “The band supporting Young has some appeal. The 69-year-old star worked with musicians decades his junior: Lukas and Micah Nelson, the guitar-playing sons of Willie Nelson. They brought in some of their young friends from their band Promise of the Real.
“Even so, no melody or chord progression can survive lyrics like “When the people of Vermont voted to label food with GMO/so they could find out what was in it/Monsanto and Starbucks sued the state of Vermont to overturn the people’s will.”
We’ve heard enough about it for months now. The album will be officially released June 30.
Moon writes:
“Having written some of the rock era’s most tender odes to love and devotion, Young, now 69, might well be a little conflicted. He understands how love can be an escape; he appreciates the notion of the love song as a salve for the soul. But he’s a chronicler of his times, and there’s so much going on in the world, from the erosion of basic freedoms to the erosion of the soil, and he feels a responsibility to sound the alarm. The title line is repeated often, in unwaveringly consonant ’60s-Coke-commercial vocal harmonies — a contrast to the acidic voice Young uses to inventory the many unpleasant realities that have riled him up.”
He calls the song: “People Want To Hear About Love” the most artful moment on The Monsanto Years, Young’s 36th studio album as a solo artist. “Taut” is his word for it, and Young is describes as “Snarly.”
“Here, we have a series of taut and stone-simple Neil Young songs that fit together under a catchall concept (about companies wielding extraordinary influence over many aspects of our quality of life), each powered by its own supply of righteous fury. Enjoyment of it probably depends less on whether you agree with Young’s positions than on how much tolerance you have for a mantra, repeated frequently, using the three syllables that make up the trade name Monsanto. It also helps to like your harangues set to three-chord rock and expressed through triadic melodies. This is not subtle, Harvest Moon Neil, brooding at the piano. This is ornery, snarly Neil. Give him a megaphone and a transcript of these lyrics, put him on a street corner and watch what happens.”
Monsanto: “Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do – and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics.”
The agrochemical company Monsanto has fired back at Neil Young for his album ‘The Monsanto Years.’
“The farmer knows he’s got to grow what he can sell, Monsanto, Monsanto / So he signs a deal for GMOs that makes life hell with Monsanto, Monsanto,” Young sings on the title track. “Every year he buys the patented seeds / Poison-ready they’re what the corporation needs, Monsanto.”
An article in Rolling Stone states: The Monsanto Years (which comes out on June 29th) also takes on Starbucks for their use of GMOs. “Starbucks has not taken a position on the issue of GMO labeling,” the company said. “As a company with stores and a product presence in every state, we prefer a national solution.”
Chevron refused to comment on Young’s lyrics, though Walmart did bite. “As you might have seen recently, Walmart raised its lowest starting wage to $9 an hour,” they told Billboard. “We’re proud of the opportunity we provide people to build a career and have a chance at a better life.”
Neil Young and Promise of the Real kick off their North American summer tour July 5th at the Marcus Ampitheater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
An article printed in New York Post on June 14 by Owen Paterson, says Neil Young and Green Peace are working to starve the world’s poor.
Paterson is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Shropshire. He was UK secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs from 2012 to 2014.
Paterson writes: “The aging songwriter is following the lead of activists who claim that GMOs are harmful to health, farmers and the environment. This is tragically wrong. In reality, GMOs can save millions of lives. It’s the environmentalists who are doing real harm.”
He gives the example of Golden Rice, a miracle grain enhanced with Vitamin A-producing beta-carotene, and say the rice could save many lives in third world countries.
“But the ongoing opposition of anti-GMO activist groups and their lavish scare campaign with its combined global war chest estimated to exceed $500 million a year have kept Golden Rice off the global market,” he writes.
Paterson said instead of bashing companies that are trying to save lives, Young ought to use his star power to convince the NGO community to do the right thing and support giving the developing world the GMO tools it needs to feed its growing, and tragically malnourished, populations.
Here’s a mini-documentary on Neil Young’s new album The Monsanto Years – a behind-the-scenes trailer shedding some light on the album and how the collaboration came about.
Lukas and Micah Nelson are members of the Promise of the Real are longtime Young fans, as you will find out when you view the video, and their band name was even inspired by a line from the On the Beach song “Walk On.”
What I am trying to figure out, is it “The Promise of the Real” or “Promise of the Real,” because then it doesn’t need a “the” in front of it.
In a series of interviews, they explain the collaborative process, plus just hanging out and jamming.
One thing they confirm is Young’s unpredictably. You just can’t rehearse too much. Wrecks the spontaneity.
The Monsanto Years is due out on June 29 through Reprise.
“Driven to the mountains high They were sunken in the cities deep ” by --Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
