Neil Young - Are You Passionate (2002)

Neil Young lets it rock and lets it roll with Are You Passionate. Backed by members of Booker T. & The MGs and featuring his longtime band Crazy Horse on "Goin' Home," Young's rock 'n' roll adds Memphis to the mix to create one of the coolest, most passionate albums of the year.
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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. --Kim Hughes