Record reviews

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Album: “The Visitor”

Grade: B+

Neil Young is unhappy.

That’s good news for music fans.

Young is back and crotchety in “The Visitor,” a record that finds him lashing out against President Donald Trump, environmental degradation, the fate of mankind and nearly everything in between.

He doesn’t go full-Grandpa Simpson here, but it is close. Not that it’s a bad thing.

Young sets the mood right out of the gate with “Already Great,” a not-so-subtle dig at Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

“You’re the promise land, the helping hand,” Young sings in the first of many digs against the president. “No wall. No hate. No fascist USA.”

With backing once again from the band Promise of the Real, the 72-year-old Young continues taking a stand on this his 39th record – something most pop stars young enough to be his grandchildren refuse to do.

He’s also all over the map musically. The freewheeling journey finds Young exploring Caribbean and Latin music on “Stand Tall,” the blues on “Diggin’ a Hole” and funk on “When Bad Got Good.” He also brings in a full-blown orchestra, but just for one song. Why overdo it?

Young closes the record with a familiar environmental anthem “Forever,” hitting on themes he’s returned to repeatedly over his 50-year career.

“Earth is like a church without a preacher,” Young sings during the 10-minute song. “The people have to pray for themselves.”

— Scott Bauer, Associated Press

Luke Bryan

Album: “What Makes You Country”

Grade: B-

If Luke Bryan has faced criticism from some country purists that his anthems aren’t true to the music form’s roots, he’s got an answer – a polite one, mind you – for them.

The opening title song on his 15-track CD “What Makes You Country” offers a welcoming, big tent view of the genre the includes cowboys in Texas, hunters in Georgia and folks hauling bails or fishing or “covered in peanut dust.”

The message is clear – whether country is in your blood or you were converted by a song on the radio, don’t judge. “You do your kinda country/I do my kinda country,” he sings.

Bryan’s country is playful, inclusive, flirty and good-natured on the album. He’s still knocking back a few – “Hungover in a Hotel Room,” “Drinking Again” (and later a cute shout-out to Beyonce with the lyric “drunk in love”) – but his optimism is undiluted by booze.

The album sags somewhat in the middle – “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset,” “Bad Lovers” and “She’s a Hot One” are a little weak – but Bryan roars back with the sweet and fatherly “Pick It Up” and the sexy rocker “Driving This Thing.”

“What Makes You Country” feels a natural extension of 2015’s “Kill the Lights” and is filled with tunes you’ll be stomping along with long before they’ve even finished their first spin. One of the highlights is “Light It Up,” in which he confesses he anxiously checks his cellphone every few minutes for word back from a lover.

— Mark Kennedy, Associated Press