The Monsanto Years

Neil Young - The Monsanto Years
Critic Score
Based on 28 reviews
2015 Ratings: #864 / 1021
User Score
Based on 33 ratings
June 29, 2015 / Release Date
LP / Format
Reprise / Label
Folk Rock / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Guardian
Young is still a force to be reckoned with. There is urgency and energy here.
92
Paste

On The Monsanto Years, the iconoclast skewers economic deception, corruption of our food and the profit motive while offering evidence of why the raggedy rocker matters.

80
The Skinny

The Monsanto Years is a crystallisation of some of Young’s hardest-fought political positions. And it comes at a time of minor global awakening on many of these fronts.

70
AllMusic

Young uses his sturdy footing to lash out at what he perceives as destructive forces -- to our dinner tables and social fabric -- and if the individual message may wind up fading like yesterday's newspapers, the music will keep The Monsanto Years burning bright.

70
Exclaim!
It's another album of Neil being Neil, and that's a good thing.
70
PopMatters

The topic at hand may have been considerably altered compared to past works, but this is the gritty, no-nonsense Young of old at work having made his most compelling record since 2010’s Le Noise, and one of his most important.

60
Rolling Stone
These songs are powerfully felt, even if they probably won't end up getting within sniffing distance of Young's towering canon.
55
The Line of Best Fit

As things stand, The Monsanto Years is another inessential and underpowered Neil Young album to file alongside the likes of 2003's ecological garage rock opera Greendale: good ideas and inspiring ideals grounded by half-baked presentation and paucity of substantial songcraft.

52
Pitchfork

In a cultural landscape craving feel-good entertainment, The Monsanto Years' brand of straight-shootin' rock'n'roll activism is going to be a tougher sell than a Pono.

50
American Songwriter
While the intent is genuine and the message on point, plowing through this is an exercise in endurance that even the Neil Young faithful might find taxing.
50
Consequence of Sound
When it comes to an end, there’s less of a fire in your belly to stampede Monsanto’s walls with pitchforks than there is an urge to slip Young’s earlier work into the car stereo and cross the barren stretch of country that looks the same as it did in the ’60s.
50
A.V. Club

Like Monsanto’s ancestral predecessors, the result is underproduced, underwritten, and not likely to take up more than a few months (if not weeks or days) of Young’s promotional energies before he moves to the next thing.

50
SPIN
The man can only talk so long about farmers, or about chemical giants arm-in-arm with fascist politicians, before it begins to feel like a parody of a Neil Young record, a parody of a protest record.
40
Slant Magazine
The result is the album equivalent of a chain email sent from your parents, typed out in all caps.
40
Tiny Mix Tapes

Sadly, Neil Young’s The Monsanto Years has too little of the speed, appeal, and lucidity needed to pull off a 21st-century “protest” album.

JustSomeGuy
50

Another embarrassing late career Neil Young album. This time 'round, the music itself would indicate a competent albeit boring album, while the lyrics absolute destroy any sort of positive qualities it could have had.

An album going against GMOs was only a matter of time when it comes to Neil Young. The guy has had no problem in the past protesting against things he disagreed with, so something this big was very obviously going to be something he'd start making music about. And that's all well ... read more

evergreenarbor
59

"Don't say pesticides are causing autistic children"

Jesus Christ, Neil. As an autistic person myself, I genuinely expected better from him. At least he didn't veer into fully anti-vax territory?

That aside, while GMOs themselves aren't inherently dangerous, he sure has a point about Monsanto and its scummy business practices. Though it also gets really, really repetitive.

koner1
47

What's worse: GMOs or this album? Vote in the comments section!

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Added on: May 14, 2015