Neil Young - Second Song (2026)
Second Song is pleasant, fragile and occasionally very moving, but I think I was rewarding the mood too much before. Neil Young still knows how to create a space where very little can feel meaningful, but here that trick does not work consistently enough.
“The Foggy Edge of Time” opens the album in a restrained way and sets the tone immediately. Piano, soft rhythm section, tired voice, very little urgency. It sounds honest, but I do not think the song itself is especially strong. “Day After Day” is better because the melody is clearer, and the seven-minute runtime gives the band enough space to make small changes around Young without forcing a climax. Pitchfork hears the album as deliberately hypnotic, and this is probably the best example of that approach actually working.
“Earth Girl” is where I start losing interest. It is more compact, but also more ordinary. The title track is much stronger. At over eleven minutes, it repeats a simple progression for long stretches, but the atmosphere is convincing enough that I can stay with it. The problem is that this kind of patience only works when the central idea is strong enough, and not every song here has that quality.
The two older tracks are revealing. “Casting Me Away From You” and “I’ll Love You Forever” come from Young's 1960s writing, and the melodic difference is obvious. They are simpler, but they are also easier to remember. That makes some of the new songs feel more like sketches by comparison.
“Soon I Might Be Going” is where the album reaches its real emotional level. The length does not bother me because the song has something to say. Young's sense of mortality, family and environmental anxiety gives the repetition weight, and the loose playing around him feels completely appropriate. This is the one track where the lack of conventional structure actually strengthens the song rather than simply making it longer.
“I’ll Love You Forever” closes the record gently, and the contrast between the youthful songwriting and Young's current voice is touching. But again, that emotional effect partly comes from context rather than from the performance alone.
The Chrome Hearts are good throughout. They understand that Young does not want polished perfection and that the small hesitations are part of the sound. Still, I think the album relies too much on that looseness. A relaxed performance can feel alive, but it can also feel underwritten.
This is why I land at 66. There is enough here for me to enjoy the album, and the best two tracks are genuinely strong, but I do not hear enough memorable songwriting across the full 42 minutes to place it much higher.
A good late Neil Young record with two real peaks, but too much of the rest feels like atmosphere carrying material that is not quite strong enough. “Soon I Might Be Going” is excellent, the title track works, and the rest is much more uneven.
Genre: Folk Rock
Country: Canada / US
Final Verdict: 66% (Good Album)
Yearly Ranking: 196th / 707
Highlight: Soon I Might Be Going
Made me think of:
Bob Dylan
Bill Callahan
Bonnie “Prince” Billy
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