New Neil Young LP En Route April 7

Fork In the Road deals with the economy and, er, that electric car of his...

By Fred Mills

Everyone is still scratching their heads over when Neil Young's long-overdue Archives box will actually be released. Recall how last fall Young finally confirmed a spring 2009 release for Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972, a 10-DVD (Blu-ray) collection and even held a press conference to kick things off, and Amazon.com subsequently began taking pre-orders for the $431.99 box (at a discounted price, $323.99). But since then the official release date has been removed from all listings. Maybe in... July. Who knows!

Part of the reason for the delay, at least from a marketing standpoint, became clear the other day when it was announced that a brand new Neil Young studio album entitled Fork In The Road will be released on April 7 by Reprise. As per most recent Young offerings, it's available as a CD/DVD package; the audio tracklisting is below.

Featuring Young, bassist Rick Rosas, drummer Chad Cromwell, guitarist/organist/pedal steel player Ben Keith, guitarist Anthony Crawford and Young's wife Pegi on vocals, the project apparently stemmed from yet another one of Young's notorious impulses: during his 2008 tour he was playing a slew of new songs, and earlier this year he also unveiled a pretty nifty YouTube video for the title track. You can view it, below.

Using the sentiments expressed in the "Fork In the Road" vid - the economic crisis, natch - along with his current project, his electric LincVolt guitar, Young apparently is dipping into various economy- and automotive-themed lyric motifs, if the songtitles are any indication.

Tracklisting:

1 When Worlds Collide
2 Fuel Line
3 Just Singing A Song
4 Johnny Magic
5 Cough Up The Bucks
6 Get Behind The Wheel
7 Off The Road
8 Hit The Road
9 Light A Candle
10 Fork In the Road

Neil Young - Fork In The Road