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Dec 19, 2016While there’s nothing really here to ignite a flame of revolution, or indeed get fists in the air to be honest, Peace Trail sees Young doing what comes naturally, soundtracking tumultuous times with some confident and easy songwriting.
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Q MagazineDec 13, 2016Unpolished and unhurried, Peace Trail is another charming stop on Young's long and winding road. [Feb 2017, p.108]
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Dec 12, 2016As with his last few records, Young’s horror at the destruction of the environment remains high in the mix, with a grab-bag of other themes (ageing, self-belief, the iniquities of tech) and a silvery hope that “something new is growing”, as he puts it on the freewheeling title track.
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Dec 9, 2016There's not an "Ohio" in the bunch but Young's grizzled jeremiads can be endearing.
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MojoNov 29, 2016While hats should be tipped for the sentiments expressed, with less urgency to make his point and more time spent on making it listenable the message might have stood a chance of reaching a few more ears. [Jan 2017, p.96]
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Jan 19, 2017Young’s heart reaches out, but his music isn’t keeping up with it, no matter how quickly he records it.
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Dec 12, 2016Young remains a treasure because he refuses to bow to convention, and his inherent distrust of studio sugarcoating or polishing has led to some of the rawest, most powerful music of our time. But it can also lead to slapdash projects such as this one.
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Dec 8, 2016Peace Trail is a hard record to get a hold of at times. The songs are so bare-bones--and, at times, meandering--that it feels a bit tossed-off.
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Dec 5, 2016While we give Young a pass for getting new music out, and worthwhile moments are scattered throughout these 10 tunes (that don’t break 40 minutes), just as often you’ll lunge for the track-skip button in exasperation of hearing a major talent and unquestioned cultural icon who has spread himself too thin.
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Dec 8, 2016All this adds up to one of Neil Young's genuinely strange albums, a record that's compelling in its series of increasingly bad decisions.
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Dec 8, 2016As it is, Peace Trail is just another album to add to the teetering pile of evidence that Neil Young’s output is currently more erratic and confounding than it has been at any time since the mid-80s.
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Dec 7, 2016With Peace Trail, Neil Young slips into self-parody again, with a set of desultory peacenik songs too simplistic and patronising to be taken seriously.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 19
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Mixed: 3 out of 19
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Negative: 9 out of 19
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Dec 9, 2016
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Dec 9, 2016
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Jan 9, 2017