Neil Young's Chrome Dreams II

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In the past year or two I've gorged myself on music as though I were a glutton. I looked through record stores for one song that I didn't have. I would scour the Internet looking for some bit of music I had yet to get my hands on. Taking walks around Buffalo I often take my music with me and when I hear Bob Dylan's slow moving music play I would slow down my speed and shift my feet to crawl along the sidewalk in time with the beat. Then Danko Jones comes alive in my ears and I do a short skip-jump to move my feet along faster, catching my pace up with my what me ears are hearing.

Music has become dream-like for many, a way to distance ourselves from what we have to live with. Other times it feels as though the music has struck just the right chord or note, and with it picks you right up off the ground into a new sensation. What if there was a musician who took you onto the edge of a dream, but at the same time held onto your body in your reality? Would you let trust them to move you back and forth between one world and another?

With Neil Young's latest album it feels as if he has taken a dream and sewed it to his guitar and his voice. In the line: "If heaven had a window/where the sun came shining through/like a beautiful bluebird/I'd come flying back to you/" from "Beatiful Bluebird", the first track, there's a great resonance of dream-like qualities throughout the song, and you feel as if you're about to wake up, but your body allows you a few more minutes inside this dream.

"Boxcar", "Shining Light", "The Believer", "Spirit Road", "Ever After", and "The Way" all have a similar feel to them. That isn't saying that they all sound alike, not by a long shot. No, they all create the experience for the listener to bend their own reality into the dreamworld that Neil Young is creating. Just remember, he's holding onto you so you'll be safe from getting lost in your dreams.

Now, the two songs I really want to talk about are "Ordinary People" and "No Hidden Path". First, these are two very long songs compared to what is normally found on any album. Unless you're listening to something from Beethoven or Mozart (or any other number of musical composers from the period), you're most likely not about to sit down and keep your focus on the lyrics or tune that runs 14 to 18 minutes.

"No Hidden Path" isn't full of lyrics in this 14-minute rockfest, but it does have Young and band just going off on their instruments. This track feels like more of a gathering to bring everything you've just sorted out of the past eight tracks, and then lets you unwind into yourself to feel whatever it is you've just dreamed. The end of the song leaves us with the lyrics: "Will the northern lights still play as we walk our distant days/Ocean sky, sea of blue, let the sun wash over you." This is a soft and gentle way to let the listener know that it's time to wake up. Even if they're already sleeping, it leads right up and into the final track, "The Way", that will send you sleeping if you aren't already.

"Ordinary People" is the longer running song. It takes you across a broad spectrum and really develops as it moves further and further away from the beginning. Neil Young lets you develop the story for yourself as the people are shown to you, and from point to point there's a decision that has to be made by the listener to keep their own story going. The song doesn't feel as long as it really is, but once you realize you still have five minutes left to go you might as well lay down and let yourself finish the dream.

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Written by Gemm on October 29th, 2007