What people search:
 | Title : Are You Passionate?
Author : Young, Neil
Release Date : 20020409
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $18.98
Amazon.com Price : $9.99
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Editorial Reviews :
Though Are You Passionate? is Neil Young's studio-recorded follow-up to 2000's Silver & Gold, it might well have emerged on the heels of Harvest Moon. While both Crazy Horse and Booker T. & the MGs swing by to add ballast to several of these 11 brand-new tracks, gentle weepers like 'Don't Say You Love Me,' 'When I Hold You in My Arms,' and the softly lilting title track recall Young's aforementioned 1992 work while suggesting that the once outspoken social critic and on-again, off-again CSN&Y member is mellowing. Further proof of that can be found in the tender opening song, 'You're My Girl'--a postcard from a father to a daughter on the cusp of adulthood and presumably inspired by Young's daughter Amber--as well as in the lazy, languid 'Two Old Friends.' Are You Passionate?'s one serious clunker, 'Let's Roll,' was inspired by the 9/11 cell-phone call Todd Beamer placed moments before he and other passengers on Flight 93 went down in a Pennsylvania field. You can't fault the guy for commemorating a heroic act and making a personal donation to the Beamer family, but all his talk of 'going after Satan on the wings of a dove' and 'facing down evil' sounds like a guy who's spent more time watching CNN than honing his lyrics.
Buyer Reviews :
'Are You Passionate?' the album is similar to its signature song 'Let's Roll,' the September 11th anthem that is getting more radio airplay than any new Neil Young song in well over a decade. The lyrics on 'Let's Roll' are quite stirring, but the music itself is far less so. The song rolls along for a lengthy six minutes and then just kind of quits. It it not nearly as angry or as (shall I say it?) passionate as it ought to be.
That same problem pervails throughout this album, which was mostly recorded in collaboration with Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. and the MGs fame). The sound Young aims for here is a 'Memphis soul,' quite unlike the norm for his studio albums, which tend to be either folkie and accoustic or hard and grungy. Throughout his great but up and down career, Young has tended to be less successful when he strays from his strengths (for proof, check out such confused Young albums as the sinthesizer farce 'Trans,' the middling rockabilly of 'Everybody's Rockin' and the ... country music of 'Old Ways').
This time out, Young includes only one track with his long time backing band Crazy Horse with whom he usually records his best music. The song, 'Going Home' lacks the usual Crazy Horse thunder. Most of the rest of the tracks are mid-tempo and similar sounding, and also fairly interchangeable. Don't get me wrong, there are no truly bad tracks here. This isn't a bad Neil Young album. It just isn't close to being among his best.
(by Brian D. Rubendall)
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