

A 2025 tour document of familiar faves, deep cuts, and one new tune. There’s no such thing as too many Neil Young live albums, because no two Neil Young tours are ever the same, and each record presents a revealing snapshot of an enigmatic, mercurial artist at a particular moment in time. As Time Explodes documents Neil’s summer 2025 treks with The Chrome Hearts, the righteously ragged quartet (anchored by longtime sidemen Micah Nelson and Spooner Oldham) who made their official recorded debut that same year on Talkin to the Trees. But in true contrarian Neil fashion, that album is barely represented here. Instead, we get a smattering of familiar favorites alongside the deepest of deep cuts, creating an alternate universe where the Silver and Gold country charmer “Daddy Went Walkin’,” the 1999 CSNY lullaby “Looking Forward,” and the battle-scarred piano ballad “Long Walk Home” (from Crazy Horse’s largely forgotten 1987 set Life) feel every bit as a canonical as “Harvest Moon” and “After the Gold Rush.” As Time Explodes is also the rare Neil Young live album to feature a new hot-off-the-presses tune: “Big Crime,” a scathing anti-Trump critique that serves as a contemporary complement to the eternally indignant Nixon-era address “Ohio.”