Chrome Dreams II is the 28th studio album by Canadian / American musician Neil Young. The album was released on October 23, 2007 as a double LP and as a single CD. The album name references Chrome Dreams, a legendary Neil Young album from 1977 that had originally been scheduled for release but was shelved in favor of American Stars 'N Bars. The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at number 11, selling about 54,000 copies in its first week. In addition, the song "No Hidden Path" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance at the 51st Grammy Awards, 2009.
Production
Chrome Dreams II was produced by The Volume Dealers, and features the ensemble of Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina, pedal steel guitarist and dobro player Ben Keith and bassist Rick Rosas. A horn section, The Blue Note Horns, appear on one track, "Ordinary People," while the Young People’s Chorus of New York City appear on "The Way." Most of the recording was done live with few overdubs at Feelgood's Garage studio near Redwood City, California, with two vintage gas pumps out front and vintage studio gear inside. According to Young,
It's an album with a form based on some of my original recordings, with a large variety of songs, rather than one specific type of song. Where Living with War and Everybody's Rockin' were albums focused on one subject or style, Chrome Dreams II is more like After the Gold Rush or Freedom, with different types of songs working together to form a feeling. Now that radio formats are not as influential as they once were, it's easier to release an album that crosses all formats with a message that runs through the whole thing, regardless of the type of song or sound. Some early listeners have said that this album is positive and spiritual. I like to think it focuses on the human condition. Like many of my recordings, this one draws on earlier material here and there. I used to do that a lot back in the day. Some songs, like 'Ordinary People,' need to wait for the right time. I think now is the right time for that song and it lives well with the new songs I have written in the past few months. I had a blast making this music.
The first three songs of Chrome Dreams II date from the 1980s. "Beautiful Bluebird" was first recorded for the original version of Old Ways that was shelved by Geffen Records; "Boxcar" was a track on the unreleased Times Square album, which was scrapped in favor of the more commercially viable Freedom; and "Ordinary People," which was recorded in summer 1988 for what became the Freedom album, was highly regarded as one of Young's greatest unreleased songs, and was often played live during the "Sponsored By Nobody" tour with The Bluenotes to promote the album. This was the album's first single, and was sent to radio on Monday, September 10. The length of this track makes it hard to program into today's limited radio playlists, so it was initially heard on radio web sites.
