
NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE
Toast (Reprise)
In 2001, Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse recorded Toast but declared it too sad to release – until now. Toast is about a relationship breakup and the opening track, Quit, is a drum-heavy, slow anti-love song that I hoped wouldn’t set the tone for the whole album. It doesn’t – five minutes later Standing In The Light Of Love, which Young describes as “sort of like a Deep Purple hit,” takes off with a blast and we’re once again rockin’ in the free world.
Toast has many shades of light and dark with echoes of funk and a Native American-influenced sound, and indeed the riff on the 13-minute-long Boom Boom Boom is oddly reminiscent of Smoke On The Water. At first, this forgotten album doesn’t seem as dynamic as Young’s earlier work, but these songs have several layers that grow deeper with each replay – and, as usual, his guitar playing is incomparable.
words LYNDA NASH

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