Neil Young has announced that he will release an album from the vault, following a similar move he made in 2020. This July, Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Toast will finally be pulled from its static post. “Standing in the Light of Love” was released as the quasi-new album’s first single. At the time of Toast’s conception, more than 20 years after its recording, Toast was – according to Young – “so sad that [they] couldn’t put it out.” Instead, he “went on to do another album in its place” and “couldn’t handle it at that time. 2001.”
Listen to the single here:
Young and Crazy Horse’s new single is available on most music streaming platforms except Spotify, following Young’s dispute with the company and CEO over promoting Joe Rogan’s podcast. Rogan’s show has spread COVID misinformation, and Young said that he would only keep his music on the platform if Spotify dropped the podcast. Other artists joined Young in his boycott, which persists even after Spotify added “content advisory” to content relating to COVID.
Toast focuses on the complex demise of a relationship: “a time long before the break up, where it dawns on one of the people, maybe both, that it’s over.”
“Standing in the Light of Love” embodies the idea of a sad, drawn out conclusion in full force; at the beginning of the song, they sing “I don’t know how you feel/But for me it’s getting hard.”
The song describes this gradual descent in each pre-chorus. In the first, they sing: “Floating in the deep blue sea/Standing in the big parade.” By the next, they sing: “Sinking in the deep blue sea/Marching in the long parade.” Finally, they sing: “Drowning in the deep blue sea/Drudging in the long parade.”
In describing the songs making up the album, Young says “these songs paint a landscape where time doesn’t matter – because everything is going south. A lady is lost in her car. The dark city surrounds her – past present and future. It’s a scary place. You be the judge. Then the scene changes to a religious guy who just lost his job. He’s turning on Jesus. He can’t cut any more trees. He’s a logger. Finally, The ‘Gateway Of Love’ beckons with ‘background noise on a changing sky.’”
In his message, Young concludes by praising Crazy Horse and the quality of music they created together: “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.”
Toast Tracklist
- “Quit”
- “Standing In The Light Of Love”
- “Goin’ Home”
- “Timberline”
- “Gateway Of Love”
- “How Ya Doin’?”
- “Boom Boom Boom”
