The Monsanto Years
| The Monsanto Years | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Neil Young and Promise of the Real | ||||
| Released | June 29, 2015 | |||
| Recorded | January–February 2015 | |||
| Studio | Teatro theater, Oxnard, California, United States | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 50:54 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | Neil Young & John Hanlon | |||
| Neil Young chronology | ||||
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| Promise of the Real chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 60/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The A.V. Club | C |
| The Guardian |  |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| Stuff.co.nz | |
The Monsanto Years is the thirty-sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young and American rock group Promise of the Real, released on June 29, 2015 on Reprise Records. A concept album criticizing the agribusiness Monsanto, it is Young's thirty-sixth studio album and the third by Promise of the Real. The group is fronted by Willie Nelson's son Lukas, and the album also features Lukas' brother Micah.
The album was produced by both Young and John Hanlon, and is accompanied by a film documenting the recording process.
Young had a long-time friendship with Willie Nelson's sons Lukas and Micah and jammed with Lukas' bandmates in Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real after 2014's Farm Aid. Recording for this album began the following January. Young announced that he was recording an album with the band —including non-member Micah— at a converted movie theater Teatro in Oxnard, California, the site where Willie Nelson's Teatro album was recorded. Young sent a CD to his collaborators with demos to allow them to learn some of the new songs before arriving to perform together on the new compositions.
The recording was filmed by Don Hannah alongside live rehearsals in April 2015 for a film also entitled The Monsanto Years.
Young debuted a music video for "Wolf Moon" on June 10, 2015.
In a highly positive review, The Guardian's Jon Dennis gave the album five stars out of five. Praising the contributions of Promise of the Real, Dennis wrote: [The band] sound not unlike Crazy Horse, and supply all the big riffs, crashing major chords and harmonies that have characterised Young’s best records for five decades." Zach Schonfeld of The A.V. Club gave the album a "C" rating, opining that the concept of the album and its execution were "underproduced, underwritten, and not likely to take up more than a few months (if not weeks or days) of Young's promotional energies before he moves to the next thing" but with some highlights among the harder rock songs. Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com gave the album 3,5 stars out of 5 claiming that: "Young uses his sturdy footing to lash out at what he perceives as destructive forces -- to our dinner tables and social fabric -- and if the individual message may wind up fading like yesterday's newspapers, the music will keep The Monsanto Years burning bright".
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Wikipedia