No one could accuse Neil Young of sitting idle. With more than a dozen studio albums released in the 21st century alone, Young still has a lot to say, whether it's his own words or someone else's, solo or with a band. Arriving a year after the ambitious if flawed symphonic Storytone project, The Monsanto Years (Reprise) fires off several rounds at the toxic corporate chemical behemoth of the album's title. Teaming up with the Promise of the Real (featuring Lukas Nelson, son of Willie), Young goes on the attack beginning with "A New Day for Love," and doesn't let up all the way through "If I Didn't Know," with songs such as "Big Box" and "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop." But the lyrics sound like they were written by angry high school students in the Future Farmers of America club. Even the music is repetitive and unimaginative. That's what makes this all such a shame; Young's anti-Monsanto/anti-corporate-greed message is a necessary one. It's too bad it wasn't delivered in a more alluring manner.
Forty-five years after the release of Sweet Baby James , James Taylor's voice retains the purity and persuasiveness that it did back then, on Before This World (Concord), his first album of original songs in more than a dozen years. Aside from his No Nukes activism in the late 1970s alongside ex-wife Carly Simon, Taylor wasn't known for his political voice. Young stirred us up, Taylor calmed us down, and he continues to do so on the new album. On "Far Afghanistan," one of Taylor's most overt statement songs, it's refreshing to hear him add his voice to the canon of protest music. The remaining songs are standard issue Taylor, blending lightheartedness ("Angels of Fenway") with more personal material ("Watchin' Over Me"). The deluxe edition includes a making-of DVD.
There's a bit of Young and Taylor in Sufjan Stevens' work, but it's unclear whether Young or Taylor could have created an album as emotionally raw and open as Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty). Written in the wake of his mother's 2012 passing, most of the 11 songs on the album are very personal. "Should Have Known Better," about childhood abandonment, is especially candid. Stevens maintains the mourning mood without becoming maudlin on "Death with Dignity" and "Blue Bucket of Gold."
Dylan Gardner may only be in his late teens, but he understands the value of a well-placed John & Yoko reference. In "Let's Get Started," the opening track on Adventures in Real Time (WB/Parlophone), he sings, "I'll be John and you'll be Yoko/Just sit back and watch our love grow." The album's 10 songs are shiny pop numbers that belie Gardner's age. He comes across as someone with a decent musical vocabulary. Highlights include "I'm Nothing Without You," "I Think I'm Falling for Something" and the ballad "The Actor."
George Ezra was barely out of his teens when he released his debut album Wanted on Voyage (Columbia). You'd never guess his age by listening to his deep and lived-in baritone, and that works in Ezra's favor. It also helps that he writes mature songs such as "Budapest," "Barcelona" and "Breakaway." Ezra conjures Nick Cave on "Spectacular Rival," while taking full advantage of his vocal abilities on the mournful "Did You Hear the Rain?"
Seth Glier turns up the pop effect on his fourth full-length studio album If I Could Change One Thing (MPress). Working with new producers, Glier teams up with American Idol 's Crystal Bowersox on the power-ballad title track. Other notable tracks include "Standing Still" and "Lift You Up," which sounds like it could have been written by MPress label-head Rachael Sage.
Butch Walker is essentially the male version of Linda Perry and Sia. Singer-songwriter Walker is best known for hit songs he has written for others, including Avril Lavigne, Weezer, Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects, Never Shout Never, Pete Yorn and Dashboard Confessional. Produced by Ryan Adams, the intimate Afraid of Ghosts (Dangerbird) sounds more like Adams' early insurgent country album on Bloodshot than anything Walker has written.