Reprise Prairie Wind

An artist for all musical seasons, Neil Young returns to autumnal harvest mode on Prairie Wind, with homespun material and sing-song melodies that renew the spirit of some of his most popular releases. Yet the mood here is darker in its maturity than on Harvest and Harvest Moon--the previous releases in what now sounds like a trilogy--and the arrangements have greater range and aural depth, with Wayne Jackson of the soulful Memphis Horns, the Fisk University Jubilee Singers gospel choir, and a string section employed to striking effect.

This is a song cycle of dreams, memories, family ties, and the passage of time--what is lost and what endures. The elliptical, epic 'No Wonder', with its evocation of 9/11, ranks with the most ambitious songs of Young's career, while 'Falling Off the Face of the Earth', 'It's a Dream', and the bluesy title cut combine childlike innocence with unsettling experience.

Spooner Oldham's church keyboards and co-producer Ben Keith's steel guitar reinforce the sound's sturdy simplicity. Young has released a lot of albums in different musical styles, but Prairie Wind feels like a homecoming, and ranks with his very best. Reprise. 2005.