Second Song is his second new album of 2026: the first, a double live set called As Time Explodes, was released just over three months ago. Indeed, at 80, his work schedule seems mind-boggling. Since 2020, he’s released nine new albums, a 30-minute EP, five self-directed films and three more films directed by others, 10 archival live albums, six archival studio albums and two immense box sets.
He has embarked on tours with his longstanding backing band Crazy Horse, his recently convened backing band the Chrome Hearts, and solo. He has gone to public war with Spotify, Amazon, Ticketmaster and – briefly – the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury, and penned umpteen op-ed pieces about politics, the environment and corporate media for his online newspaper the Times-Contrarian. When he recently cancelled a European tour citing exhaustion, it was hard not to think: well, I’m not surprised.
You do find yourself wondering if his workload is such a good thing: not just for an elderly gentleman’s health but also for the quality of his output. Young has always prized spontaneity over finesse, but some of his more recent releases have suggested that at least a soupçon of finesse might not go amiss. Last year’s Talkin to the Trees, however, seemed to cross the line that separates the instinctive from the dashed off.
Young frequently sounded as if he was making the material up as he went along, with nugatory results: “When today has come and gone, I might be singing my new song,” he offered on Family Life. Not one but two tracks echoed the tune of Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land; First Fire of Winter was essentially Young’s 1970 masterpiece Helpless with different lyrics; Thankful rewrote 1992’s Harvest Moon. Its follow-up leans more into Young’s gentle acoustic side than the gargantuan Crazy Horse-like din the Chrome Hearts are more than capable of creating.
The music seems a little more honed than that on its predecessor. There are audible overdubs, including a backwards guitar solo on opener The Foggy Edge of Time. Like 1973’s Don’t Be Denied or 1979’s Thrasher, it’s one of those Neil Young songs in which he defends his right to follow his muse, regardless of the personal cost.
But if you’re worried about declining inspiration, the omens augur ill. Two of Second Song’s seven tracks are re-recordings of tracks Young first performed with his early 60s band the Squires, which hardly suggests a surfeit of great new material. Casting Me Away From You and I’ll Love You Forever turn out to be pleasant enough, but slight.
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