The trouble with being prolific (and Neil Young is exactly that – this is his 36th studio album) is that you can, unwittingly, repeat yourself.
Notwithstanding Young’s wide ranging career over the past 50 years, there are times when the integrity of his interests don’t always match the quality of the music.
Accompanied throughout by Willie Nelson’s sons, Micah and Lukas (as well as the latter’s band, Promise of the Real), Young’s single-issue theme here is agribusiness, and how the corporations that peddle pesticides and chemicals are untouchable.
It's a lyrical groove we've heard before from Young, and while there's no doubting his focused anger (or, indeed, the engaging off-kilter Crazy Horse- style appeal of the band), in the context of his catalogue The Monsanto Years is more filler than killer.
