Neil Young

This release from Sexy Intellectual, part of the Chrome Dreams group of companies, is more in-depth than some outside biographies of recording artists, perhaps because Chrome Dreams is the name of the "lost"/unreleased/bootlegged Neil Young album and no doubt where these devotees got their corporate handle. It is a follow-up to the companion DVD Under Review 1966-1975 and covers the 30 years of Young's career that fall between 1976-2006 -- triple the span of time explored by the first disc. Mandy O'Neale narrates this "journey through the past" over 14 chapters alongside eight name journalists including Robert Christgau and Nigel Williamson -- who are both in conflict over the artist's Trans album: Williamson calling it "appalling," Christgau praising the disc by saying "he made only one good album during the '80s years and that was Trans." Clinton Heylin, Bill Friskics-Warren, and others help conduct this investigation and do a good job of holding the viewer's interest over the hour and 20 minutes of chatter. Neil Young's repertoire, like that of David Bowie, is so complex it begs for a bit of cataloguing, and that's what these reviewers do a good job of, this "Under Review" a solid attempt at putting Young's vast catalog into perspective. It might even be a more difficult task with Young because, unlike Bowie, he drifts in and out of the mainstream spotlight. A tour with Crosby, Stills & Nash can always get some renewed interest, but the general public doesn't spend its time obsessing over a fellow who released experimental albums like Re-ac-tor, Trans, and Everybody's Rockin', a trilogy far apart stylistically and almost as commercially suicidal a move as Lou Reed interrupting his catalog with Metal Machine Music. Not as easy to index as the reviews on the All Music Guide website, the passion the critics bring to this "independent critical analysis" -- a mixing of opinion with facts -- makes their pretty on-target perspectives worthy of consideration. They touch upon the David Geffen/Neil Young conflict regarding the singer's artistic freedom during the Geffen years, but don't give that topic the study it deserves, perhaps because it's safer to discuss music rather than record company politics. These fanzine-styled observations of an artist's career usually work better for the Kate Bush and Leonard Cohen types, historically important but more obscure than a personality of Young's stature, but this particular episode has substance and is worthwhile. As for bonus material, there's a 25-question trivia quiz that will give you a snippy remark if you score low, and biographies of the eight rock critics who participated in the documentary. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide