Neil Young to perform at Hayden Homes Amphitheater with Chris Pierce on July 17. 

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

“THE MONSANTO YEARS”

Reprise Records

Neil Young follows his muse, or in this case, his rage. “The Monsanto Years” is an album-length rant recorded with Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah in which the Farm Aid co-founder targets his venom mostly at agricultural giant Monsanto (and also Starbucks) in songs that often sound like he wrote them on the spot.

That’s not necessarily a terrible thing: Though Young’s anger about industrial farming’s use of genetically modified organisms is often awkwardly expressed (“I want a cup of coffee, but I don’t want a GMO / I’d like to start my morning off without helping Monsanto”), the project teems with the off-the-cuff, ragged, loose-limbed energy that has often made this most instinctive of classic rockers’ projects great.

In the end, though, there’s simply too much one-sided, subtle-as-a-flying-mallet fulmination to compel repeated listening. Put this one in the same category as previous ecologically focused projects like “Greendale” (2003) and “Fork in the Road” (2009), which even ardent Young fans are not wont to revisit. But that doesn’t mean that when he tours behind it his passionate drive to put the songs across won’t result in another great Neil Young show.

— Dan DeLuca,

The Philadelphia Inquirer