Culture
30 May 22

Neil Young to release shelved 2001 Crazy Horse album Toast

Neil Young

Forthcoming Neil Young LP Toast is set to land on July 8th via Reprise.

The legendary Neil Young is ploughing on with the exploration of his past musical efforts, announcing the upcoming release of a shelved Crazy Horse album Toast.

Young and Crazy Horse recorded the album in 2001 at Toast Studios in San Francisco, featuring the track 'Standing in the Light of Love'.

“Toast is an album that stands on its own in my collection,” Young said last year. “Unlike any other, Toast was so sad that I couldn’t put it out. I just skipped it and went on to do another album in its place. I couldn’t handle it at that time. 2001.”

“The music of Toast is about a relationship,” he added. “There is a time in many relationships that go bad, a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over. This was that time.”

He proceeds to heap praise on the outfit that he's collaborated numerous times with over the last few decades.

"It must be said that here Crazy Horse shows a depth never seen or heard before. The greatest group I have ever met. This is a pinnacle. Where they let me go, where they took me, was unbelievable. I couldn’t stay. Then, “I’d like to shake your hand, Mr. Disappointment.” I see you now eye to eye. Murky and dark. There’s no mistaking it. How can you be so real and intangible? So we continued on down on the path. “She’s a healer”. But not this time. It’s Toast."

Crazy Horse were formed when Young asked three members of the Rockets, a psychedelic pop/folk group from Los Angeles, to play backup on his sophomore solo album – his old band Buffalo Springfield having broken up a few years prior. The initial team-up blossomed into a decade long partnership. The current band line-up is made up of Ralph Molina on drums, Billy Talbot on electric bass and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren.

Last year, Neil Young & Crazy Horse released the new album Barn. Also in 2021, they released Way Down in the Rust Bucket, a live album recorded in 1990. Read Hot Press' Pat Carty's verdict on the former here.

Listen to 'Standing in the Light of Love' from the LP below.