A rambling one-man band

Neil Young's 'Talkin to the Trees' is both heroic and tedious, says Helen Brown. And Van Morrison's 'Remembering Now' is solidly enjoyable and optimistic, praises Louis Chilton

- Helen Brown

“When today has come and gone/ I might be singing my new song...” growls Neil Young on the opening line of his 48th studio album, Talkin to the Trees. Although he’s backed by a ragtag band of long-term collaborators (branded here as The Chrome Hearts), the bumble-bump of the wheezy harmonica, acoustic strum and rattling drum of “Family Life” make him sound like a one-man band rummaging absentmindedly through a cramped store cupboard in search of the next line... which turns out to pivot on the almost comically underwhelming, yet triumphantly delivered, rhyme: “Might be short and it might be long/ But I’ll be singing my new song!” Taahh-dahh!

You wait patiently as the rambling rocker lifts line after line from the shelves, listing his family members, telling you where they’re at now and worrying away at emotional sores. He names his sons and pines for “my grandchildren who I can’t see”. The question of why Young might be estranged from the children of his daughter, Amber, appears to be answered when he goes on to describe actor Daryl Hannah (who he married in 2018) as his “best wife”. Surely an unnecessary slap in the face for Amber’s mother, Pegi, to whom Young was married for nearly 40 years? Unnecessary, even if true. Also, is it sweetly homely or plain patronising that the highly accomplished Hannah (who recently released a documentary about Young on tour) is lauded only for being “the best cook in the world”?