Psychedelic Pill

2012 was filled with activity for Neil Young and his beloved Crazy Horse. Young not only published his first memoir and maintained a full concert calendar; he and Crazy Horse also released two new albums. The first release, Americana, revisited a variety of traditional material; Psychedelic Pill is another beast entirely. The group's first batch of entirely new material in nearly a decade is ripe with cosmic jams and heavenly harmonies. The opener, "Driftin' Back” (an exploratory groove that's over 27 minutes long), sets the mood for the album—a winding and wondrous expression of passion backed with feedback and solid interplay between guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, drummer Ralph Molina, and bassist Billy Talbot. The final track, "Walk Like a Giant," is a hypnotic tale of destruction and rebirth, one of Young's finest melodies in years.