The year before
Neil Young tracked 2002's meandering and sometimes draggy
Are You Passionate?, he recorded some of the songs with his longtime backing band
Crazy Horse, trying on the fit of the semi-soulful material with them before ultimately choosing to re-record with groove masters
Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Seven-song album
Toast consists of the long-shelved
Crazy Horse sessions from 2001 and includes versions of four songs that materialized in different forms on
Are You Passionate? as well as three previously unreleased outtakes. Despite their reputation as one of rock & roll's loosest, scrappiest institutions,
Crazy Horse's playing is surprisingly refined on
Toast, with their takes on some of the
Are You Passionate? tunes being hard to differentiate from the ever-smooth
Booker T. versions. "How Ya Doin'?" (aka "Mr. Disappointment") is superior on
Toast, with the tempo slowed just a little bit and
Young approaching the vocals with his familiar achy near-falsetto rather than the experimental grumble he sang with on the
AYP? version.
Crazy Horse fits right into the mellow groove of "Quit," and "Goin' Home" (a rocking tune that sounds more like a
Ragged Glory leftover than a soul exercise) was the only song on
AYP? played by
Young and
Crazy Horse, so the
Toast version sounds nearly identical. The songs that didn't end up on
AYP? are similar in tone to "Goin' Home," with "Standing in the Light of Love" built on snarly riffs and pensive playing and "Timberline" stomping along in a similar fashion. The remaining tracks find
Young and his band stretching out in lingering jams. "Gateway of Love" ambles on for more than ten minutes, like a more tropical "Like a Hurricane," and "Boom Boom Boom" (presented as closing track "She's a Healer" on
AYP?) expands on the whispery blues of the album version with extra instrumental passages, including a lengthy trumpet solo. It's a lot less slick than the
AYP? rendition, recalling more of a bleary
Tonight's the Night energy than the pitch-perfect session-musician feel of the album version. Whether you prefer the slightly more organic vibe of
Toast or the cleaned-up
Are You Passionate? will depend on your personal relationship with
Young's massive catalog. For fans of his early moody rock or the rough-edged brilliance he always locked into with
Crazy Horse,
Toast will be a clear favorite more than just an interesting companion piece. ~ Fred Thomas