Songs of love and intimacy are nothing new to Neil Young’s discography. Are You Passionate? redefines those tones as middling encounters with barely interested parties. There is an unfortunate drop in quality and tone found on this album. Are You Passionate? has the unenviable task of trying to follow up Silver and Gold, an essential album from Young, which suggested he would dominate the new century with classics. It would take a few more years until he made good on that again with Prairie Wind. For all the shortcomings Greendale had, at least it was a plot-heavy experiment from Young who brought to life a fictional world of his own. On Are You Passionate?, all he can do is kick half-heartedly at the love-shaped notions, the lust for love and the toll it takes on life as underwhelming as can be. Flimsy work from Young is better than solid work from most, but even then, it doesn’t stop Are You Passionate? from being such an underwhelming piece of work.
Seeing one of the songs titled Mr. Disappointment is so on the nose, Young is asking for trouble. The legendary figure, goading in the studio with a sound that’s far from his best. With an easy listening groove that Billy Ocean would be disgusted by, opening song You’re My Girl is a truly fascinating experience. Here is Young, backed by Booker T and the M.G.’s and in great vocal form, yet he’s using these assets for plodding love songs. Moments of interest are the best you’ll get out of You’re My Girl. Real middle-of-the-road stuff is what Young brings out on both You’re My Girl and Mr. Disappointment. The latter works because of the slower tempo, the absence of love and the rough vocal addition from Frank Sampedro which nails that loss. A soul album without the soul was never going to work, but there are moments of interest across Are You Passionate?.
Those moments are never enough to overhaul the whole sound, though, an unfortunate problem Young never reckons with or tries to fix. Songs of longing are only as good as the lyrics to them. Make no mistake, there are some successes here. Differently has a cool guitar riff embedded in the track and that makes all the difference for the hopes of reconciliation heard throughout. Sluggish, borderline meaningless songs like Quit (Don’t Say You Love Me) bring the album back down to earth, though. Overly sentimental, hand-wringing mush from Young, who at this point in his career should know better. Even with the notion of exploring soul genre stylings, there’s nothing about Quit (Don’t Say You Love Me) that suggests Young and The M.G.’s have a grasp on a style they’re confident in presenting to a listener.
Young needs the freedom of Crazy Horse in the studio to make this work, the frenetic spirit of Pearl Jam to bring a bold idea into focus. He doesn’t have either on Are You Passionate?, instead he must contend with a collection of musicians whose talent is clear, but their rigidity shines through too. The title track is at least a storming piece of work from Young, the type of quality audiences had come to expect from him at this point in his career. Still, even the lowest points of Are You Passionate? are solid enough to listen through once. More than that and you’re pushing it. Young says he’ll try to get blood from a stone anyway on Goin’ Home, and that’s very much how it feels listening to him muddle his way through the soul genre sound. He is, one way or another, going to connect with you, though it takes a little more time than usual with this Booker T and the M.G’s-featuring album.
