Neil Young has made some weird records — Trans' robo-slop, the ersatz rockabilly of Everybody's Rockin'. So Fork in the Road — which is all about his 1959 Lincoln Continental hybrid — isn't totally out there. But it is weird. And, filled with the same nondescript sludgy riffs that form the basis of most of his albums over the past decade, it isn't all that memorable either. This is a road record, but it's also a new-age road record. "Taking a trip across the U.S.A./Gonna see a lotta people along the way," sings Young on opener "When Worlds Collide." But Fork in the Road isn't so much about traveling our wide-open nation as it is about how freakin' awesome Young's custom ride is. "Fill 'er up!" goes the chorus of "Fuel Line." "Cough up the bucks," he intones in another song (about your gas-hogging car, not his). And "Just Singing a Song" is followed by "won't change the world." Apparently you have to drive a vintage vehicle that's environmentally friendly too. — Michael Gallucci
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