The Monsanto Years

The Monsanto Years
Studio album by Neil Young and Promise of the Real
Released June 29, 2015 (2015-06-29)
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
Storytone
(2014)		 The Monsanto Years
(2015)		 Bluenote Café
(2015)
Promise of the Real chronology
Wasted
(2012)		 The Monsanto Years
(2015)		 Something Real
(2016)

The Monsanto Years is an 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 agribusiness Monsanto,[1] 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.[2]

The album was produced by both Young and John Hanlon, and is accompanied by a film documenting the recording process.

Recording and release

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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[2]

The recording was filmed by Don Hannah alongside live rehearsals in April 2015 for a film also entitled The Monsanto Years.[2]

Young debuted a music video for "Wolf Moon" on June 10, 2015.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic60/100[5]
Review scores
SourceRating
The A.V. ClubC[6]
The Guardian[7]
Rolling Stone[8]
Stuff.co.nz[9]

Critical

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."[7] 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.[6]

Billboard solicited the opinions of corporations criticized on the album, including Monsanto, whose representative said: "Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do—and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics."[10] An Associated Press review of the album argued that Young's criticisms of corporate greed descend into preachiness, saying Young's anger is "so real that it could be tasted, but there is something discomfiting about Young positioning himself as an all-knowing seer, putting people down for wanting simpler, cheerier songs."[11]

Commercial

The album debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its first week of release,[12] selling around 18,000 copies in the United States in its first week. It also debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Rock Albums chart.[13] and No. 2 on the Folk Albums chart.[14] As of June 2016, the album has sold 41,000 copies in the US.[15]

Live performances

At a concert at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts on July 22, 2015, before the first song, a visual act took place. A group of stagehands dressed as farmers planted seeds on the stage, then another group wearing hazmat outfits came along to spray the seeds with pesticides. In addition to "A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop", Young played two other songs from The Monsanto Years, "People Want to Hear About Love" and "Big Box".[16]

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "A New Day for Love"   5:52
2. "Wolf Moon"   3:52
3. "People Want to Hear About Love"   6:19
4. "Big Box"   8:17
5. "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop"   5:00
6. "Workin' Man"   4:43
7. "Rules of Change"   4:39
8. "Monsanto Years"   7:46
9. "If I Don't Know"   4:26

Personnel

Technical personnel
Artwork

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[17] 23
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[18] 45
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[19] 64
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[20] 14
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[21] 45
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] 13
Greek Albums (IFPI)[23] 60
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[24] 15
Italian Albums (FIMI)[25] 27
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[26] 47
UK Albums (OCC)[27] 24
US Billboard 200[28] 21
US Folk Albums (Billboard)[29] 2
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[30] 4
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[31] 2

See also

References

  1. ↑ Barsanti, Sam (April 20, 2015). "Neil Young Is Protesting GMOs with an Anti-Monsanto Album". A. V. Club.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Greene, Andy (May 1, 2015). "Behind the Scenes of Neil Young's New Protest Album The Monsanto Years". Rolling Stone.
  3. ↑ Greene, Andy (January 8, 2015). "Neil Young Recording New Album With Willie Nelson's Sons". Rolling Stone.
  4. ↑ Levine, Nick (June 10, 2015). "Neil Young Debuts New Song and Video 'Wolf Moon' – Watch". NME. IPC Media – Inspire (Time Inc.).
  5. ↑ "Reviews for The Monsanto Years by Neil Young". Metacritic. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  6. 1 2 Schonfeld, Zach (June 16, 2015). "Neil Young Rants About Agriculture on The Monsanto Years". A. V. Club.
  7. 1 2 Jon Dennis. "Neil Young + Promise of the Real: The Monsanto Years review – on angry, brilliant form | Music". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  8. ↑ Dolan, Jon (2015-06-16). "Neil Young and Promise of the Real The Monsanto Years Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  9. ↑ "Neil Young takes no prisoners on new album The Monsanto Years". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-07-19.
  10. ↑ Gensler, Andy (June 16, 2015). "Neil Young's Corporate Targets Respond to Him Calling Them Out on New Album". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media.
  11. ↑ The Denver Post Neil Young's 'The Monsanto Years' attacks corporate greed By Gregory Katz Associated Press 06/29/2015
  12. ↑ "Billboard 200". Billboard. July 18, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Rock Albums". Billboard. July 18, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Folk Albums". Billboard. July 18, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Upcoming Releases". Hits Daily Double. HITS Digital Ventures. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016.
  16. ↑ The Sun Chronicle Concert review: Neil Young keeps rockin' against corporate world in Mansfield Thu Jul 23, 2015 BY STEPHEN PETERSON
  17. ↑ "ARIA Australian Top 50 Albums Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Neil Young + Promise of the Real: The Monsanto Years" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Greekcharts.com – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved Week 44, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Top 40 album DVD és válogatáslemez-lista – 2015. 27. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Italiancharts.com – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Neil Young + Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Neil Young – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Neil Young.
  29. ↑ "Neil Young – Chart history" Billboard Folk Albums for Neil Young.
  30. ↑ "Neil Young – Chart history" Billboard Top Rock Albums for Neil Young.
  31. ↑ "Neil Young – Chart history" Billboard Top Tastemaker Albums for Neil Young.
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