Review: Neil Young’s full moon fever shines in ‘Barn’

“Barn,” Neil Young & Crazy Horse Ever wonder what Neil Young and his longtime bandmates Crazy Horse would sound like in a restored 19th century barn out in the middle of nowhere under a full moon? “Lookin’ through this clear vinyl window/At the city and its lights,” Young sings on the lilting opener “Song of the Seasons.” “Masked people walkin’ everywhere/It’s humanity in my sights.” He’s got plenty more in his sights over the 10 tracks on “Barn,” which was recorded last summer in the Rockies. It’s the first record Young has released with Crazy Horse since “Colorado” in 2019 and it comes 42 years after their first record together. “Well, the jury is out/On the old days you know,” he sings on “They Might Be Lost.” “The judgement is soon comin’ down/I can’t quite remember/What it was that I knew.” The Canadian-born Young, who became a U.S. citizen in 2020, touches on that journey in “Canerican.” In “Change Ain’t Never Gonna” Young gives an assessment, of sorts, of the current political landscape.