Neil Young Chases Urgency, Not Polish, on ‘The Visitor’

“The Visitor” is Neil Young’s second album with Promise of the Real, and it makes its target clear from the title of track one. This is a loose, loud, political record, built for a moment rather than for the ages. Young sounds angry and amused in equal measure, and the band gives him a rawer, less polished bed than his solo work usually gets.

Already Great Sets the Tone

The opening title, “Already Great,” is a direct hit at its target, and at 5:47 it takes its time making the point. “Fly by Night Deal” follows at a brisker 2:37, sharp and quick, one of the tracks singled out by critics for its economy.

The middle stretch is where the record earns its reputation for restless energy:

1. “Almost Always” (4:50) — one of the album’s most-cited songs, loose but focused.
2. “Stand Tall” (5:13) and “Change of Heart” (5:54) — solid, plain songs that hold the record together.
3. “Carnival” (8:20) — the album’s most ambitious stretch, sprawling and singled out repeatedly by reviewers.
4. “Diggin’ a Hole” (2:33) — short, pointed, another of the tracks critics flagged.

“Children of Destiny” (3:24) is one of the record’s most-mentioned cuts, compact and pointed where “Carnival” is expansive. “When Bad Got Good” (2:00) is the album’s briefest statement, barely a sketch. It closes with “Forever,” a 10:32 epic that stretches the record’s ideas out as far as they go, the longest track by a wide margin.

Rolling Stone praised the mix of rage and hope running through the record, and that’s the right way to hear it — not as a single clean statement, but as a wide, uneven one. The Guardian described the songs as energetic, funny protest songs with a sharp sense of humor, a read that fits the shorter cuts like “Fly by Night Deal” and “Diggin’ a Hole” better than the longer pieces. Pitchfork found the record “more all-encompassing, and as a result, more centered,” a fair read of how the band’s chemistry holds together a set that could easily have come apart.

Carnival and Forever

The album’s two long tracks make an instructive pair, and they don’t do the same job.

“Carnival” earns its length with momentum. “Forever” earns its length more slowly, and by the ten-minute mark, the patience it demands isn’t always repaid.

At 51 minutes across ten tracks, “The Visitor” doesn’t wear out its welcome, even when individual songs run long. Metacritic has it at 68, Pitchfork gave it 6.7, AllMusic 3.5 out of 5 — a steady picture of a record that’s good, not great, and full of life. Young and Promise of the Real aren’t chasing polish here. They’re chasing urgency, and on “Already Great,” “Fly by Night Deal,” “Almost Always,” “Carnival,” “Diggin’ a Hole” and “Children of Destiny,” they catch it.

The lesser tracks don’t sink the record; they just don’t add much to it. “Stand Tall,” “Change of Heart” and “When Bad Got Good” pass by without leaving a mark, and “Forever” asks more patience than it repays.

That’s the whole picture.

This is a good late-career Neil Young record, not a great one. It’s messy on purpose, angry on purpose, and sharper than his reputation suggests. It doesn’t reach the highs of his best work, but it doesn’t try to borrow them either.

album review · Neil Young · Promise of the Real · protest rock · The Visitor