| The Monsanto Years | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 29, 2015 (2015-06-29) | |||
| Recorded | January 27 – February 11, 2015 | |||
| Studio | Teatro Theater, Oxnard, California, United States | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 50:54 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer |
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| Neil Young chronology | ||||
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| Promise of the Real chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Monsanto Years | ||||
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The Monsanto Years is the 37th studio album by Canadian-American singer-songwriterNeil Young and the American rock groupPromise of the Real, released on June 29, 2015 onReprise Records. Aconcept album which criticizes theagribusiness companyMonsanto,[2] it is Young's thirty-fifth studio album and the third by Promise of the Real. The album is the first collaboration between Young and Promise of the Real. The group is fronted byLukas Nelson and features his brotherMicah, both sons ofWillie Nelson.[3]
The album was produced by both Young andJohn Hanlon, and is accompanied by a film documenting the recording process.
Young had a long-time friendship withWillie Nelson and his sons,Lukas andMicah, and jammed with Lukas' bandmates inLukas Nelson & Promise of the Real after 2014'sFarm Aid.[3] Micah reflects on their relationship with Young: "Neil doesn't want us to hold back musically, and we all were quickly absorbed into the fold with him. We look up to him with respect, but he never treated us like we were younger, he treats us as equals. He's now our homie and he doesn’t act like he's 71."[4]
Songs on the album reflect Young's dissatisfaction withgenetically modified organisms, or GMOs, and the lack of requirements that GMO-sourced foods be labelled as such.[5] The song "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" reflects Young's unhappiness at Starbucks' efforts to prevent a Vermont referendum from taking effect that would have required the labeling of GMO-sourced food products.
The song "People Want to Hear About Love" reflect Young's challenges in balancing his competing desires to sing about social issues but also express more personal, emotional topics in his songs.[6] He explained toMarc Maron:
"The song started from... I was playing a lot of songs about anti-corporate songs and all these things, and somebody just, I got the message, people want to hear about love, that's what they want to hear. I'm going, 'Well, I don't give a, I don't care. I've sang about love already. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". I sang about many aspects of love.' Just quite recently I did an album calledStorytone that's all about love. That was only a couple albums ago. I'm going, 'Does this mean that I can only do 'that'? And I can't talk about things like the dangers of different things and incongruous things that are happening. Pollution, corruption, corporate government.' Those things, I think they're interesting."[7]
Recording for the album began January 2015. Young announced that he was recording an album with the band—including non-member Micah—at a converted movie theater Teatro in Oxnard, California, the site where Willie Nelson'sTeatro album was recorded.[8] Young sent a CD to his collaborators withdemos to allow them to learn some of the new songs before arriving to perform together on the new compositions.[3]
The recording was filmed by Don Hannah alongside live rehearsals in April 2015 for a film also entitledThe Monsanto Years.[3]
Young debuted a music video for "Wolf Moon" on June 10, 2015.[9]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 61/100[10] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [11] |
| The A.V. Club | C[12] |
| The Guardian | [13] |
| NME | 8/10[14] |
| Paste | 9.2/10[15] |
| Pitchfork | 5.2/10[16] |
| Q | [17] |
| Rolling Stone | [18] |
| Slant Magazine | [19] |
| Uncut | 8/10[20] |
In a highly positive review,The Guardian's Jon Dennis gave the album five stars out of five. Praising the contributions ofPromise of the Real, Dennis wrote: [The band] sound not unlikeCrazy Horse, and supply all the big riffs, crashing major chords and harmonies that have characterised Young's best records for five decades."[13] Zach Schonfeld ofThe A.V. Club gave the album a "C" rating, opining that the concept of the album and its execution were "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" but with some highlights among the harder rock songs.[12]Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllMusic gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5, claiming that: "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".[2] AnAssociated Press review of the album argued that Young's criticisms of corporate greed descend into preachiness, saying Young's anger is "so real that it could be tasted, but there is something discomfiting about Young positioning himself as an all-knowing seer, putting people down for wanting simpler, cheerier songs."[21]
Billboard solicited the opinions of corporations criticized on the album, including Monsanto, whose representative said: "Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do—and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics."[22] Notably all the corporations mentioned in album lyrics except forChevron provided their responses for the request to comment on the album songs. Reacting to the "Big Box" trackWalmart said: "As you might have seen recently, Walmart raised its lowest starting wage to $9 an hour. We're proud of the opportunity we provide people to build a career and have a chance at a better life."Starbucks commented on "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop": "Starbucks has not taken a position on the issue of GMO [genetically modified organism] labeling. As a company with stores and a product presence in every state, we prefer a national solution."[23]
The album debuted at No. 21 on theBillboard 200 albums chart on its first week of release,[24] selling around 18,000 copies in the United States in its first week. It also debuted at No. 4 onBillboard'sRock Albums chart.[25] and No. 2 on theFolk Albums chart.[26] As of June 2016, the album has sold 41,000 copies in the US.[27]
Criticism of the company led Monsanto to investigate Young and write an internal memo on his social media activity and music.[28]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "A New Day for Love" | 5:52 |
| 2. | "Wolf Moon" | 3:52 |
| 3. | "People Want to Hear About Love" | 6:19 |
| 4. | "Big Box" | 8:17 |
| 5. | "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" | 5:00 |
| 6. | "Workin' Man" | 4:43 |
| 7. | "Rules of Change" | 4:39 |
| 8. | "Monsanto Years" | 7:46 |
| 9. | "If I Don't Know" | 4:26 |
Technical personnel
Artwork
| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[29] | 23 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[30] | 24 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[31] | 32 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32] | 14 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[33] | 23 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[34] | 24 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35] | 13 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[36] | 15 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[37] | 27 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[38] | 38 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[39] | 40 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[40] | 47 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[41] | 24 |
| USBillboard 200[42] | 21 |
| USAmericana/Folk Albums (Billboard)[43] | 2 |
| USTop Rock Albums (Billboard)[44] | 4 |
| US Indie Store Album Sales (Billboard)[45] | 2 |
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