Neil Young + Promise Of The Real - The Visitor

Double LP includes limited time album download

Like many citizens of the world, Neil Young didn't handle the electoral events of 2016 with ease. He decided to record an entire album of outrage at the Orange One in 2017, roping in his new background band, Promise of the Real, for support. The Visitor never disguises Young's disgust with the direction America is headed.

When Young entered Shangri La Studio with the band Promise Of The Real, there were a lot of images and feelings careening around his soul. The country was heading in a direction Young had never seen, even though up until then he thought he'd seen it all. But something different was happening, and it had gotten inside his music.

"I'm a Canadian by the way and I love the USA," he sings on the first song "Already Great." The ethos of The Visitor can be summed up in the refrain of "Already Great" where Young insists, "Already great, you're already great. You're the promise land, the helping hand. No wall. No hate. No fascist USA. WHOSE STREET? OUR STREET."

From those words, Neil Young was ready to take a musical journey on his new album The Visitor like he had never taken before. It was one where he'd even surprise himself, always the mark of a creative leap. Young calls out Trump for destroying the things he holds dear and he peppers the album with twists on rallying cries from the 2016 election. All of these touches give The Visitor specificity and immediacy, but it's hardly an album of stark folk songs, writes AllMusic.

By the end of the recording sessions, Young knew he'd made his most diverse album going all the way back to Harvest in 1972, when America was also in the throes of becoming unhinged. Neil Young didn't blink then, and he is not blinking now.

1. Already Great

2. Fly By Night Deal

3. Almost Always

4. Stand Tall

5. Change of Heart

6. Carnival

7. Diggin' a Hole

8. Children of Destiny

9. When Bad Got Good

10. Forever

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