Neil Young – Reactor Review

Never a man to let audience expectation bother him, Neil Young pairs with Crazy Horse for an album which splits his listeners even now. Reactor is a chance to reunite with a band which had provided ample backing in the past. Rust Never Sleeps remains a high point of their live work together. The pairing does not try to replicate this feeling in the studio but are certainly held to the quality which precedes it. History is on their side. Zuma, Crazy Horse and Young’s last collaboration together is of an overwhelmingly high quality. Where the band and Young may not greet the highs of their previous collaboration, they do find plenty of swinging fun. Knocks at high-brow city life, a chance to remember their roots and reflect on it, rather than chart a new course. Reactor may find itself toying with occasionally charmless interjections, but the fun thrills are still heartfelt.  

Opener Opera Star is the best example of this. Rock and roll stars at the turn of the decade provided a new sound, a lighter style to the instrumental tone offered. Those higher-pitched interjections from Young kill the mood, as do the passive suggestions of being born to rock, as he makes note of in a throwaway song. Still, Young’s throwaway efforts, especially when paired with Crazy Horse, are of a next-level quality. Conviction is what carries them, even if the lyrical purpose is a bit aimless. The instrumentals are more than enough to suggest there are still thrills left in the tank for this musical partnership. Even with the dud opener, Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze has a Cortez the Killer style to it. A narrative with lush and gorgeous backing vocals, an identifiable instrumental style which screams of classic Crazy Horse, and a story which hits at the comfort of the times. Young is on fire here.  

What “the big one” is for Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze is up to the listener. Whatever it is, the high of a long-fought journey or the thrills of acceptance is neither here nor there, Young manages to make the most of a song with clear direction, but unclear messages. It is a flash in the pan for Reactor. Excess of the times and a desire to break from the serious rocker stereotype are the reasons Young is driven to write T-Bone, more a jam session with restaurant order over the top than anything else. It is the repetition which may drive some mad; the percussion, heavy as it is, overwhelms the wonderful fretwork of the song, which is already struggling under the weight of its whimsy. Love for Reactor depends on how much you want to spend listening to Young have fun.  

For most, that is more than enough to warrant a listen, but the shaky form heard throughout Reactor is a sign of things to come. Young and Crazy Horse prove instrumentally rewarding here, as the heavy rock styling of the pairing so often does. But lyrically, the project is a mess. Calls for Young to get back on it, as the song of the same name nicely indicates, are of no interest to the songwriter. He has “some things to do,” and the occasion, the feeling, drifts from genuine to inarticulate at times. Journeyman music where Young wishes for nothing more than to hit the road, as is the case for Southern Pacific. But instead of longing tones, instead of the wonder which comes from travel, there is a fractured feeling. This is the calm before the storm for Young. His synth interests, sparked by album closer Shots, would only get more fractured from here.