Music

Socking it to the Prez like Michael Moore in castrato, Young’s latest is a ludicrously unsubtle but thoroughly enjoyable extended rage against I-Raq and GWB. This is an album where every song title looks like it should be written in capitals followed by a handful of screamers – ‘LIVING WITH WAR’!!! ‘LET’S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT’!!! ‘SHOCK & AWE’!!! – and where the only surprise about the tearjerking child choir is that they don’t make their first appearance until two songs in. But unlike, say, Steve Earle, where the message overwhelms the medium, here the anger and earnestness isn’t stultifying and has been channelled into the strongest set of songs that Young has produced for years. This is the sound of a man who’s had a whole lot of fun getting mad and getting even.

Young has described ‘Living With War’ as folk-metal and it’s a fantastically frantic mess – dig the out-of-place but awesome trumpet solo on chugthumping standout ‘Shock & Awe’ – pitching up some place between ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and ‘Ragged Glory’. Okay, so even at its best, it can sound a little like a ‘South Park’ take on protest rock (the brilliant/hilarious ‘Let’s Impeach The President’), but what’s wrong with that? If this is what the Bush clan does for Young, can somebody make sure Jeb is running for office in 2008?