The Monsanto Years (2015)

Neil Young has had a long history of supporting farmers, forming the annual benefit concert Farm Aid in 1985 with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp being the most visible example of that support. Farm Aid is a big part of this album and I’ll come back to that after some background on the subject of The Monsanto Years. In brief (and with the help of my friend Dan), Monsanto is one of the largest producers of genetically modified seeds in the world. One the surface, GMOs are not necessarily harmful, but the business practices of Monsanto make supporting GMOs a fraught issue. They will will push farmers to use copyrighted GMO seeds. When the farmers resist, they will test their crop and sue them if they find any evidence of Monsanto seeds having been used, even if the seeds had been blown on to their farms without them knowing. This can ruin family farms who don’t want to buy from Monsanto and instead use their own seeds. Around the time of the release of the record, the director Craig Jackson would share his short film Seeding Fear with Neil’s team and Shakey Pictures would eventually co-produce its release (with music by Daniel Lanois). It’s 10 minutes and well worth watching for more context than I can provide.

Farm Aid also appropriately plays a role in the music for this album. The story of how Willie Nelson’s son came to first form a band and then join Neil Young as a new backing band is pretty good. Essentially they kept running into each other at Farm Aid and at Neil’s other benefit for the Bridge School until eventually Neil asked them to back him up at a protest for the Nebraska Keystone Pipeline. They already knew and played a handful of Neil’s songs, but he ran them through some new songs and it went really well. Pretty shortly after that, he asked them do a record with him, which would be The Monsanto Years. Of course, Neil has had many bands backing him up through the years and many combinations of recurring players. This was a whole new, already formed band, though. In a lot of ways, this is most similar to when Neil worked with Pearl Jam on Mirror Ball. Like that album, it’s really odd to hear Neil playing with a young, fresh, and tight band. Promise of the Real is very much not Crazy Horse.

On The Monsanto Years, the mix is better than Mirror Ball and I credit John Hanlon for bringing the magic of clarity to the recording. At the same time, Promise of the Real essentially has a co-lead guitar as well as a rhythm guitar, and adds a percussion player on top of the drummer to the proceedings. While everyone is playing well and tight with each other, it’s hard to tell when Neil is playing lead and the added percussion detracts a little from the overall groove. Additionally, Neil is in his “shout about the issues” style, and it’s my least favorite vocal style for him. That all said, there’s a lot to like about this album, with a few really memorable standouts.

“A New Day for Love” hits with twinkling melodies before breaking out into a full three guitar twang. I like the chorus on this (although the band is all over the place), but Neil’s vocal is extremely strained, making his normally contentious voice even more challenging. This song is placed perfectly, though, as it introduces you to not only Neil’s focus this time around, but has Neil and Lukas Nelson switching off lead guitar, and the whole band engaging in harmonic chants. Those harmonic chants are all over this album and they generally sound great. It’s more sing song than what Crazy Horse does, but works for the album. However, “Wolf Moon” is one of the weaker tracks for me, with trite lyrics and one of Neil’s worst vocal performances. I’m not sure why his voice is so distraught all over this album, whether he’s struggling amidst the new sound, or attempting to evoke emotion, but it is really not enjoyable. Here, he’s evoking “Harvest Moon” with the general vibe of the song, but falling far short, unfortunately.

Of course, one of the stronger songs directly follows with the upbeat but subversive “People Want to Talk About Love.” Neil is essentially slamming all the critics and fans that take him to task when he talks about political issues (they always forget “Ohio). I really love the guitar sound on this song, one of the places where the multiple leads and rhythms create a big space instead of muddling the soundstage. “Big Box” concerns itself with how corporations like Walmart use their size to influence policy thanks to Citizens United (its so weird hearing Neil talk about this decision in lyrics). The music is a little rote by Neil’s standards, just a not particularly inventive rock sound. Likewise, “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop” finds Neil making a bad pun and a somewhat disingenuous argument about Starbucks. I like the bounce and lilt of this song, though. They are also introducing the sing-song “Monsantooooo” that comes back on the title track later.

“Workin’ Man” is fully about the aforementioned Seeding Fear film, where Monsanto sues a farmer for unknowingly having Monsanto copyrighted seeds on his land. It’s told in a fast paced roadhouse romp that works pretty well. “Rules of Change,” however slows things down with another straining vocal to expound on how seeds fly all over the place. Not a big fan of this song for a lot of reasons, but in the end, the vocal is what kills it.

The last two songs are the strongest on the album, especially the majestic title track. I love the rhythm, the guitars, love the chorus. The only thing I don’t love is the extended soliloquies about God and the Bible as supporting reasons for why farmers should be able to sow whatever seeds they want. It’s not needed, and gives the song a strangely toothless argument. It’s a shame, because this song has Neil’s strongest vocal, and the guitar playing is equally fantastic. The interplay between Neil and Lukas works the best on this song. It’s an easy favorite on the album. Maybe because they let themselves stretch out over almost eight minutes. Long songs are where Neil always feels most comfortable.

“If I Don’t Know” brings us home with something that sounds like it could have been on Tonight’s the Night, as Neil speak-sings a confessional about how he will keep on pushing to help Earth, even if maybe he’s not always 100% correct. The passion will always be there and the heartfelt playing on this track shows that no matter what he does, it’s always emotional for him. And always sincerely done. This is only the start of his collaboration with Promise of the Real, so I’ll definitely be interested in how it progresses on future albums. It’s not an era I’m very familiar with.

Top 3:

1. Monsanto Years
2. If I Don’t Know
3. People Want to Talk about Love

Cut song: Wolf Moon

There is a movie that goes along with The Monsanto Years that is pretty fun (and pretty hokey). I like watching the live recordings of these songs in the Teatro Theater, and the camaraderie of the band is really apparent. But its interspersed with strange costume changes meant for music videos and bizarre scenes of a mariachi band. Still, getting this insight into the making of the album is always a treat…especially when it involves creating an echo chamber in a theater toilet.

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