Track Listing

1. When Worlds Collide
2. Fuel Line
3. Just Singing A Song
4. Johnny Magic
5. Cough Up The Bucks
6. Get Behind The Wheel
7. Off The Road
8. Hit The Road
9. Light A Candle
10. Fork In The Road

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17740 in Music
• Released on: 2009-04-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .10 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Neil Young has been on a bit of a roll of late. The Canadian crooner has been busy re-issuing live albums (Live At Sugar Mountain, Live At Massey Hall), picking up headline festival slots (Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight Festival, Hyde Park Calling) and has also found time to release a glut of new material. Following on from 2007’s Chrome Dreams II, Fork in the Road is a quickly-recorded, vaguely eco-themed album about…automobiles. Cars have long been an obsession for Young and here he takes the bull by the horns, praising their virtues while simultaneously acknowledging climate-change issues. Recorded in just a few weeks, the record even sounds like a car--all rhythmic, grainy revs and testosterone blues-rock swagger. The songs within might not be particularly sophisticated, but they do make for excellent road trip material. --Danny McKenna

CD Description
'Fork In The Road' is the raw, unpolished studio follow-up to Neil Young's eclectic 2007 release 'Chrome Dreams II'. Here the Canadian folk-rock pioneer returns to the production values of 2006's 'Living With War' - this time presenting a batch of car themed songs that often allude to the state of the economy. While much of the material here is delivered ata relentless pace, the pedal-steel fuelled ballad 'Light A Candle' is one of the album's finer moments.

Customer Reviews

Not classic Neil...but very good
This is a good record. The typical Neil Young themes of the 2000s of government, environment, and of course cars (the main driving force of this release if you`ll excuse the pun) are all here, and delivered in ways that one would expect. Some screeching guitars, shouted background vocals, quirky lines and ideas...in fact, you need to read the lyrics that are in the digipak, as they are as funny as Young has been for years. It must be said though that there are a lot of songs that probably won`t sit in their own right into the Neil Young canon, but this is of course due to the astonishingly high numbers of absolute gems in his back catalogue.

My favourite bits are the songs that remind me of old classics - more than once I was alerted by the promise of classic Neil, thinking I was about to hear "Piece of Crap" or even "Look Out For My Love"! I don`t know if anyone agrees with me but I almost wish he wasn`t so damn prolific with his releases, and held better songs back to create the magical album I`m waiting for, something like "On The Beach" or "Zuma", even another "Greendale". Maybe I`m being too harsh, but I`d love to have a bit more light and shade, an "Ambulance Blues" with "Revolution Blues" style contrast. Is it even slightly reasonable to think that we`ll hear anything like that again? That is his fault, for setting the bar so high for so long. My biggest fear was quickly allayed - that it would be an "Are You Passionate?" or "Chrome Dreams II" - it`s not, it`s much more rock than them. It`s more like "Ragged Glory" without Crazy Horse or a ballsier "Freedom" if that helps!

PS. One final thought. After seeing Neil Young in Nottingham last week it struck me, as he played only "Get Behind The Wheel" from this album, what a set list he could have played, and potentially how long he could have played for! What is almost unique about Neil, and what I have realised is one of his greatest strengths, is that he releases everything he does (with a few exceptions), he writes about what he wants to write, he leaves nothings behind and if he died tomorrow you feel that he would be one of the few people who could honestly say they achieved all they could, tried everything, wasn`t afraid of criticism or relative failure...I suppose my point is that he is a great example of overcoming adversity, being honest and being yourself, and not having regrets. Almost like an existentialist`s perfect example. And damn close to a perfect musician.

Better Than Reactor And Then Some
If Fork In The Road had been released instead of Reactor back in the early 80's, it would have been hailed as a masterpiece, a worthy sequel to the grunge-fest of Rust Never Sleeps. But this is nearly 30 years later, and what was cutting edge then is cliche today. Still, not all is wrong with predictability.

Before Young begins singing on each song, you can often anticipate the melody line he'll use -- they're standard Young melodies that Neil is not about to ditch any more. He's recylced this music so often that there's a considerable element of familiarity in most Young fans before they've even listened to a single track. This has its pros and cons. If you fight it, it's a con. Neil won't change at this stage. If you accept it, it can be a pro. The material falls within stylistic expectations and the only question left is: Does Neil retread the same old ground with quality songs, or is he merely going through the motions? This time around, it's the first. You may have heard Fork in countless variations on previous Young albums, and yet his old tricks are still effective when done well and given a twist. Of course, this also lends a rushed and tossed off feel to the music, but it's also added a certain charm to Neil's work in the past. That's frequently been the case with many of his classics. The ramshackle urgency of "Down By the River", "Cowgirl In the Sand", and "Southern Man" just make it all so much more exciting.

The following albums are strongly alluded to here: Reactor, Rust Never Sleeps, On The Beach, Comes A Time, and a touch of Hawks And Doves as well as the more shadowy side of Stars And Bars. Not that Fork is as brilliant as some of these, it's just that they are the source from which Neil borrows to make Fork (blatantly sometimes). Quite a different concept altogether.

There is, however, one major difference or addition to the old recipe. This is a grungy and yet LITE album that, as many reviewers noted, would be cool for cruisin' around. While it may have all the grunge you want, it has little of the grunge darkness (unlike Greendale). And that's an interesting combo which permeates the entire album, making it snappy, foot-tapping, and well-crafted, if undemanding as well. Then there's some clever riffing and well chosen color changes within most songs (in fact, the title track is by far the lamest of the heavy ones). And to top it off, the production is wholly unassuming, allowing the raw vigor of the band to come through -- simple, hard-hitting, forward-looking. All this makes Fork relevant and Neil's most pleasant surprise in decades.

I disliked the album initially (the rather obvious lyrics remain the my biggest complaint). I then found myself putting it on because it was both good company and a plain fun listen. With only one skippable song (a rare feat these days, and the culprit is the excessively derivative Off The Road), Fork In The Road may end up becoming Neil's swan-song.

A really poor effort from a true legend.
It's really hard being a Neil Young fan. Like Prince, he is allowed to release too much material too frequently. If only he would release half as much material, he would stand a better chance of making a great album. 'Fork in the Road' is a 38 minute collection of poorly recorded out takes. Why oh why in this digital age do so many artists fail to record an album that sounds great in terms of clarity and detail? Bruce Springsteen can't manage it and Neil Young can't either. The whole album sounds like it was recorded in his kitchen. Flat, dull, lazy. The only redeeming track is 'Light a Candle' which sounds melancholic. The rest consists of poor lyrics, sloppy playing and appalling production. It's an offence to release poor material; it's a major crime to record it with no care at all. If you are a Neil fan, I wouldn't bother. My copy will be going into the CD rack never to come out again. Sad.